Delivery of battle tanks: Pistorius wants to check “Leopard” stocks

Still no decision has been made – but the federal government wants to check the availability of “Leopard” battle tanks. Germany “is not blocking any decision,” said Defense Minister Pistorius in Ramstein.

According to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the Western Allies have not yet agreed on whether to provide the Ukraine with Leopard 2 main battle tanks. “There is no unanimous opinion,” Pistorius said on the sidelines of the Ukraine contact group’s deliberations at the US base in Ramstein.

The impression that Germany is blocking such a decision is wrong. “There are good reasons for the delivery, there are good reasons against it,” says the SPD politician. He can therefore not yet say what the decision should look like.

Examination of the “Leopard 2” stocks

However, he gave his ministry a test order to check the stock of “Leopard 2” tanks in the Bundeswehr and in industry. He wants to be ready to act if a decision is made. “We are preparing for the worst-case scenario,” he said. The political decision on a delivery will then be “made as soon as possible”.

Austin: Support “as long as it is needed”

At the start of the meeting, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called on the Western Allies not to let up in their support for Ukraine. “The Ukrainian people are looking at us. The Kremlin is looking at us. And history is looking at us. So we will not let up,” he said. Rather, it is time to step up military aid.

Austin pointed to a new $2.5 billion US aid package for Ukraine’s armed forces, which includes the delivery of 59 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. US aid to Ukraine totaled $26.7 billion, Austin said.

At the center of the deliberations of the approximately 50 countries is the question of whether Western-style main battle tanks should now also be delivered to Ukraine for the first time, above all it is about the “Leopard 2” from German production.

Selenskyj demands more speed

At the beginning of the defense ministers’ meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the contact group directly in a video message for the first time. He called on the supporting states to speed up the delivery of weapons, including battle tanks.

Time is critical, he said. Russia is gathering its last strength. “We have to get faster.” The Russian terror does not allow long discussions. “The Kremlin must lose.” Zelenskyy thanked the assembled representatives of Western countries for their support to date. “We see the results on the battlefield in Ukraine.”

But the defenders of freedom were slowly running out of weapons. In Ramstein, concrete decisions would have to be made about the delivery of aircraft, missiles and long-range artillery, for example, in order to be able to end Russian terror.

Kremlin: Tank deliveries will “change nothing”

The Kremlin, on the other hand, remained convinced of a victory for Russia. Western tank deliveries would “change nothing” in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow. The West has a “dramatic delusion” that Ukraine could succeed “on the battlefield.” “One should not exaggerate the importance of such deliveries in view of the ability to change something,” Peskov told journalists. The conflict in Ukraine is developing in an “upward spiral”.