Ukraine war: talks about tank delivery – first commitments

Ukraine war
Discussions about tank delivery – first commitments

The federal government wants to deliver 14 Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks to Ukraine. photo

© Federico Gambarini/dpa

The German government is making slower progress than some expected in its efforts to form an alliance to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Some partners are in no hurry.

After its decision to supply Leopard main battle tanks, the federal government is still waiting for concrete participation from partner countries. While there are already announcements for the older Leopard model 2A4, the supply situation for the newer type 2A6 was initially thin, according to government circles in Berlin.

The Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa meanwhile promised a delivery, but left the exact number open. His country is currently in contact with Germany about the overhaul of Leopard tanks, the Portuguese state news agency Lusa reported.

The federal government announced last week that it would deliver 14 Leopard 2A6s, after Poland had already applied for a delivery permit for older Leopard 2A4s. Both states are thus taking a first step which, with the participation of partners, should lead to the formation of two Ukrainian Leopard battalions. In Ukraine, these are usually equipped with 31 tanks each.

The Chancellor intervenes

The “Spiegel” reported that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had tried in several phone calls to win government leaders for delivery commitments. According to “Spiegel” information, no EU country wanted to make any concrete commitments about participating in the tank package during a video call to which Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) invited last week. Even the Dutch government, which, like Poland, had already promised to supply Leopard 2 tanks in the media, did not want to commit itself. However, several states have made public commitments.

“We are currently working on being able to do without some of our tanks. I know how many tanks will be sent (by us to Ukraine), but that will only be announced in due course,” said the Portuguese Costa during a visit to the Portuguese military mission in the Central African Republic. As a possible date for the posting, Costa called a period of time “until the end of March” on the state TV broadcaster RTP.

Now the contacts with Germany are about “a logistical operation to deliver parts to complete the repair of some of the (combat) vehicles that were not ready for use,” Costa said, according to Lusa. Despite the deliveries of tanks to Ukraine, Portuguese defense capability must be guaranteed, also in order to be able to fulfill NATO tasks. Therefore, currently non-operational tanks would need to be repaired to replace operational Leopards to be delivered to Ukraine. The Portuguese Armed Forces have a total of 37 Leopard 2A6s, which were bought used from the Netherlands years ago.

53 mothballed tanks in Spain

Spain wants to deliver four to six Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine in a first tranche, as the newspaper “El País” reported, citing government circles in Madrid. The Spanish Ministry of Defense would neither deny nor confirm the report. The newspaper wrote that these were Type 2A4 tanks that had been mothballed in Zaragoza since 2012. They would first have to be repaired, which would take about two and a half months and could cost more than 500,000 euros per tank. The exact number of tanks that Spain can deliver depends on the condition of the 53 Leopards that are mothballed.

After several other countries, Canada had also announced that it would be supplying main battle tanks to Ukraine and, as a first step, intends to send four Leopard models to the war zone. Defense Minister Anita Anand said at a press conference in Ottawa last week that the delivery would take place “in the coming weeks.” In addition, Canadian soldiers should support their Ukrainian counterparts in commissioning the tanks. Also, Canada is considering sending more tanks at a later date.

dpa

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