New German defense minister ‘ready to move quickly’ on tanks to Ukraine
Mike Brest
Video Embed
New German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said his country is “ready” to move to send tanks to Ukraine if a deal among international leaders is approved.
Pistorius, who assumed the role earlier this week following the resignation of his predecessor, has become a lightning rod of sorts amid the Western world’s race to Ukraine. Berlin has refused to provide Ukraine with its Leopard-2 tanks and has barred roughly a dozen other European countries that possess them from providing them to Ukraine, though reports have emerged that it would do so only if the United States provided tanks as well.
RUSSIA HAS ‘NO CHANCE’ TO ‘ACHIEVE THEIR STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES,’ DOD OFFICIAL SAYS
“As far as the delivery of the Leopard is concerned, there is no unanimous opinion,” Pistorius said on the sidelines of a defense leaders’ meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday, though he added they’re “ready to move quickly” if a consensus is made. “There are good reasons for the delivery, and there are good reasons against it. And given the overall situation of a war that has been going on for almost one year now, all the pros and cons have to be weighed very carefully, and that assessment is explicitly shared by many allies.”
“We all cannot say today when a decision will be made and what that decision will be on Leopard tanks,” he added.
Earlier this week, the United Kingdom announced it would supply 14 “Challenger 2” tanks to Kyiv, putting additional pressure on other countries to match the contribution, and the U.S., in its new $2.5 billion military aid package, declined to provide tanks citing the maintenance and upkeep requirements, instead opting to provide them with other armored vehicles.
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov released a joint statement on Thursday describing their need for tanks amid an expected Russian offensive in the coming months as “one of the most pressing and urgent needs.”
“We welcome the bold and very timely decision of the United Kingdom to transfer the first squadron of Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine,” they wrote. “However, it is not sufficient to achieve operational goals. Therefore, we are addressing our appeal to the states that have Leopard 2 tanks in service, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. We guarantee that we will use these weapons responsibly and exclusively for the purposes of protecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine within internationally recognized borders.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who is also at Ramstein for the eighth meeting of the Defense Contact Group, which meets monthly to discuss the latest developments in the war, implored his Western colleagues to “dig even deeper” ahead of the meeting.
“We need to dig even deeper. This is a decisive moment for Ukraine in a decisive decade for the world, so make no mistake, we will support Ukraine self-defense for as long as it takes,” he told reporters before the meeting. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a crucial moment. Russia is regrouping, recruiting, and trying to reequip. This is not a moment to slow down, it’s a time to dig deeper.”
Austin and Pistorius, whose predecessor, Christine Lambrecht, announced her resignation earlier this week, met on Thursday in Germany ahead of the larger meeting.