Officials deny ‘linkage’ between US and Germany sending Ukraine tanks
Mike Brest
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U.S. and German defense officials denied there were any preconditions that tied the United States from possibly sending Ukraine its M1 Abrams tanks and Germany providing its Leopard tanks or allowing other countries to send tanks of their own.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin were among roughly 50 defense leaders who met on Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany for the eighth convening of the Defense Contact Group, which meets monthly to discuss the latest developments in the war and how to best assist Ukraine at that time.
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One of Ukraine’s main requests is for tanks ahead of what many experts expect to be a renewed Russian offensive in the coming months. There have been reports that Germany would not provide Ukraine with its tanks, or allow others with them to do that, unless the U.S. also provided its tanks, though both officials have issued denials.
Pistorius, who recently assumed the position following the resignation of his predecessor, told German public broadcaster ARD on Thursday that he was “not aware of such an agreement.” He also told reporters on Friday on the sidelines of a monthly meeting among defense officials that “we all cannot say today when a decision will be made and what that decision will be on Leopard tanks.”
Austin, after the meeting of defense leaders, was asked about the possible German demand, and he said there was “no linkage.”
“I think you heard the German minister of defense say earlier today that there’s no linkage between providing M1’s [Abrams] and providing Leopards, and I think he was pretty clear about that,” the secretary said. “So this notion of unlocking, you know, in my mind, it’s not an issue.”
The two leaders met on Thursday ahead of the Defense Contact Group session. A Pentagon readout said the duo had a “substantive discussion” on “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; coordination ahead of tomorrow’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany; the importance of security in the Indo-Pacific for Europe and the United States; and planning for NATO’s Summit in Vilnius.”
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The U.S. did not provide tanks in the $2.5 billion security assistance package the Pentagon announced on Thursday.
Instead, the package includes 90 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers and 59 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles that, when combined with the 50 Bradleys that were included in the previously most recent aid package, “will provide Ukraine with two brigades of armored capability,” according to a Pentagon announcement.