Dhe President of the Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, expressly welcomed Poland’s initiative to provide his country with Leopard main battle tanks. “Thank you very much to President Duda, the Polish government and all our Polish friends,” said Zelenskyj in his daily video address on Wednesday evening on the results of his meeting with his Polish colleague Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian head of state Gitanas Nauseda in Lviv. Western-made tanks are “the work of our entire anti-war coalition and a new level of our potential.”
After the meeting, Duda said his country had made the decision to provide the Ukrainians with Leopard main battle tanks for a company as part of a coalition with allies. In Poland, as in Germany, a Leopard company is usually equipped with 14 main battle tanks. Zelenskyy thanked his colleagues “for this further manifestation of unchanging and principled support for Ukraine”.
Duda went on to say that the prerequisite was, on the one hand, “a whole series of formal requirements and approvals”. A permit from Germany as the country of manufacture is required for a delivery of the Leopard main battle tanks. On the other hand, Poland wanted an international coalition to be formed to which other countries would also contribute battle tanks. For his part, Nauseda had stated that Lithuania wanted to supply more anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine.
After the Polish announcement, the Green politician Anton Hofreiter called for Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to control the delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine at an international level. “Chancellor Scholz is now responsible for coordinating the delivery of the battle tanks with the other western heads of state and government,” Hofreiter told the “Tagesspiegel” (Thursday edition).
The Leopard 2 is the “most widespread main battle tank in Europe,” said Hofreiter. Several European countries have already signaled their willingness to make Leopard 2 available to Ukraine. Only when Russia’s President Vladimir Putin recognizes “that he cannot achieve his war goals will he be willing to negotiate”.
After much hesitation, the federal government announced last Thursday that it would be delivering Marder infantry fighting vehicles and a Patriot air defense system to Ukraine. With a view to the Leopard tanks, however, Berlin remains cautious.
The Greens and the Union are demanding further deliveries to Ukraine
The chairman of the German-Ukrainian parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Robin Wagener (Greens), called on the federal government to follow Poland’s advance and allow deliveries of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. “Ukraine needs western-style tanks to defend and liberate Russian-occupied territories,” Wagener said. “The willingness of our Polish friends to form a European coalition for the delivery of European main battle tanks is an important signal of solidarity.”
The opposition Union made a similar statement. Poland’s advance “increases the pressure on Germany to finally rethink here,” said CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”. “Poland is showing once again that it thinks strategically with foresight and is a reliable partner in the rule-based order.” In the event of further delays, Germany would have to “put up with the accusation of failing to provide assistance”.
Ukraine has long been demanding the delivery of Leopard main battle tanks. During a visit by Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday that he assumed that Germany would supply Leopard tanks. “I have no doubt that Ukraine will receive German Leopard tanks because, deep down, the German government knows that this is a necessity,” he said.
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Wednesday in Berlin that there was “no new status to be communicated” on the subject. The German government’s stance is unlikely to change before the January 20 NATO meeting in Ramstein, he added.
Ukrainian foreign minister expects Leopard delivery from Germany
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba assumes that Germany will supply Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine. “Even if Germany should have certain rational arguments for not doing it, Germany will do it anyway at a later date,” said Kuleba in an interview with the ARD “Tagesschau”. That was also the case with self-propelled howitzers, Marder tanks and the Patriots air defense system, he explained.
“First they say no, then they defend their decision fiercely, only to say yes in the end,” Kuleba summed up. He sees “not a single negative consequence for Germany” should the Leopard tanks be delivered.
In the discussion about the tank deliveries, Kuleba apparently sees an ally in his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock (Greens). Baerbock is “not the one who needs to be convinced,” said the Foreign Minister, who visited the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday with the Green Party politician. Baerbock had “played an important role in making past deliveries possible”.
Kuleba expressed understanding for the decision-making processes in Germany and the other western allies. But: “What is a day full of debates in Berlin also means a day full of fear, suffering, pain and sometimes death for Ukrainian civilians and soldiers,” the Ukrainian Foreign Minister clarified.
According to Kuleba, if the federal government “cannot make this last big decision itself,” it should at least give the green light to the countries “that have your tanks and are willing to provide us with these tanks.” Regarding the fear of an escalation of the war through further arms deliveries, the foreign minister said: “Russia will escalate regardless of the type of weapons and the number of weapons supplied to Ukraine.”
Note: In an earlier version, the source of the information about the tank delivery was said to be Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the AFP news agency reported. We corrected that.