After weeks of hesitation that led to growing impatience among Germany’s allies, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Wednesday that his government would provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 battle tanks and approve requests from other countries to do the same.
In a statement, the German government said it would initially provide Ukraine with one company of Leopard 2 A6 tanks, consisting of 14 vehicles, from its own stockpile. The goal is for Germany and its allies to provide Ukraine with a total of two battalions, or 88 tanks.
“This decision follows our well-known line of supporting Ukraine to the best of our ability,” Scholz said after a cabinet meeting in Berlin.
Germany is “acting in close coordination” with its international allies, he said.
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Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Germany had notified several allies of its plan before the announcement, including Canada.
“Germany will always be at the forefront when it comes to supporting Ukraine,” Scholz later told lawmakers in the Bundestag.
The long-awaited decision came after US officials said a preliminary agreement had been reached for the United States to send M1 Abrams tanks to help Kyiv push back Russian forces entrenched in the east nearly a year since the war began.
Reaction of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky:
German main battle tanks, further expansion of defense support & training missions, green light for partners to supply similar weapons. I just heard about these important & timely decisions in a conversation with
—@ZelenskyyUa
By getting Washington to use some of its own tanks, Berlin hopes to spread the risk of a Russian backlash.
Ekehard Brose, head of the German military’s Federal Academy for Security Policy, said binding the United States to the decision was crucial to avoid Europe facing a nuclear-armed Russia alone.
But he also noted the deeper historical significance of the decision.
“German-made tanks will again face Russian tanks in Ukraine,” he said, noting it was “not an easy thought” for Germany, which takes seriously its responsibility for the horrors of World War II.
Kremlin criticizes “disastrous plan”
Members of Scholz’s three-party coalition government welcomed the news ahead of the official announcement.
“The leopard is released!” said German lawmaker Kathryn Goering-Eckard, a senior Green Party lawmaker.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a member of the Free Democratic Party who chairs the parliamentary defense committee, said the news was “a relief for a battered and brave Ukraine”.
Schrack-Zimmerman has been one of the loudest voices calling for a swift decision on arms supplies to Ukraine.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Left Party, each with current or historical ties to Russia, were critical of the decision.
“Germany risks being drawn directly into the war as a result,” AfD co-chair Tino Chupala said.
“The delivery of Leopard battle tanks, which ends another taboo, potentially brings us closer to a third world war than to peace in Europe,” left-wing parliamentary leader Dietmar Barch told the German news agency dpa.
In this undated photo, taken from a video and released by the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday, Russian army T-90M tanks move towards their position at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of Russia)
Earlier this week, Poland formally asked Germany to approve sending Leopard 2 tanks from Polish stocks to Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the intentions of Germany and the United States with the tanks as a “pretty catastrophic plan.”
“I am convinced that many specialists understand the absurdity of this idea,” Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
Peskov predicted that “these tanks will burn like all the others… Except that they cost a lot, and this will fall on the shoulders of European taxpayers”.
Abrams’ approval is a turnaround for the US
U.S. officials said details of Abrams’ deployment were still being worked out, representing a turnaround for the Joe Biden administration.
Much of the aid sent so far in the 11-month war has been through a separate program using Pentagon stockpiles to get weapons to Ukraine more quickly. But even with this program, it would take months to deliver tanks to Ukraine and train Ukrainian forces on them. It was unclear Tuesday how soon the U.S. would begin training Ukrainian troops on the Abrams, or roughly how soon they could reach the battlefront.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, looks at buildings destroyed by shelling during his visit to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday. (Sergei Bobok/AFP/Getty Images)
Until now, the US has resisted providing its own M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing the extensive and complex maintenance and logistical challenges with the high-tech vehicles, required training and maintenance of the tanks. The official also said the administration believes such plans are already in place, but it may take time to implement them.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday he had nothing to announce about any U.S. decision on the Abrams tanks. But he said, “every time we’ve provided Ukraine with a certain type of system, we’ve provided the training and sustainment capabilities with that.”
The administration’s cancellation comes just days after a coalition of more than 50 senior defense officials from Europe and beyond met in Germany to discuss Ukraine’s military needs, with battle tanks a major topic.
While several House Republicans in Congress have objected to the amount of military aid given to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion last February 24, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that “it’s about time” the Biden administration and allies to send more military aid to Ukraine and that the US should provide more tanks and weapons to help Ukraine “win this war”.
“It’s time, way past time, for the Biden administration and our allies to get serious about helping Ukraine finish the job and get its country back.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made it clear late Tuesday that he hopes to receive a larger number of tanks from Western allies.
“It is not about five, or 10, or 15 tanks. The need is greater,” he said.
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