Debate on arms deliveries
FDP and Greens politicians call for tanks for Ukraine – Scholz sticks to “no German solo efforts”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is skeptical about tank deliveries to Ukraine
© Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Ukraine’s military successes are heating up the debate about arms deliveries in Germany. Politicians from the FDP and Greens are increasingly calling for the provision of tanks, while the SPD remains cautious.
Ukraine is continuing its counter-offensive. The general staff announced on Monday that more than 20 Russian-occupied towns in the north-east had been recaptured within 24 hours. In total, the troops have recaptured 6,000 square kilometers of land since the beginning of September, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj announced in his daily video address.
In Germany, on the other hand, the military successes of the Ukrainians are once again fueling the debate about arms deliveries. The outgoing Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk emphasized that the gains in territory would not have been possible without Western weapons. The federal government must give up its blockade of further deliveries, he demanded TV channel “World”. “It can no longer be the case that you keep inventing a new excuse for not delivering what is necessary.” His appeal falls on fertile ground with parts of the traffic light coalition.
FDP and Greens demand tanks for Ukraine
In the meantime, the Federal Minister of Finance and FDP leader Christian Lindner is also pleading for more support – but without specifying it in more detail. “You have to salute the bravery of the Ukrainians. We have to check every day whether we can do more to help them in this war,” wrote Lindner on Twitter. The day before, the chairwoman of the defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), had called for Ukraine to also be given the German Leopard 2 main battle tank and Marder infantry fighting vehicle it had requested. The delivery list so far includes the Gepard anti-aircraft vehicle, the Panzerhaubitze 2000, multiple rocket launchers and the Iris-T anti-aircraft system as well as other weapons.
“Everyone in the government knows that more is possible,” Green Party leader Omid Nouripour warned in an interview with the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “There should not only be an exchange of rings, but where possible also delivered directly from the stocks of the Bundeswehr and industry.”
The Greens politicians Anton Hofreiter and Robin Wagener also called on the government to do more. “In the successful liberations of the past few days, we can see the military added value of Western arms deliveries: They create military territory gains without mass destruction and devastation. They reduce the number of war casualties on both sides. They shorten this war,” Wagener tweeted, who chairs the German-Ukrainian parliamentary group. Germany should no longer hide behind other countries, criticized Hofreiter, chairman of the Europe Committee in the Bundestag, to the Bayern media group.
Chancellor Scholz insists on “no German solo efforts”
Despite the growing pressure from his coalition partners, Chancellor Olaf Scholz continues to rely on artillery and anti-aircraft defense for military support. Scholz avoided a question about the provision of western battle tanks on Monday. It “remains with the attitude that the German government has taken from the beginning and that will also be our attitude for the future, namely that there are no German solo efforts,” said Scholz in Berlin. SPD leader Saskia Esken did not rule out the delivery of battle tanks, but insisted on international coordination.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that at a meeting of the so-called Ukraine contact group last week, she asked her US colleague Lloyd Austin about tank deliveries. “At least I didn’t have this perception that there was a rethinking in the USA,” said Lambrecht.
Nevertheless, military expert Carlo Masala expects the debate to become even more dynamic in the coming days. “I think we’ll be moving dramatically fast over the next few days to the question of armored personnel carriers and main battle tanks,” said Masala on Monday star-Podcast “Ukraine – the situation”. He expects that Germany will also issue export permits if the US decides to supply such weapons.
Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador in Berlin, Sergey Nechayev, has made new allegations. “The mere delivery of lethal weapons to the Ukrainian regime, which are used not only against Russian soldiers but also against the civilian population in Donbass, is a “red line” that the German government (…) should not have crossed,” Nechayev said in an interview with the Russian daily Izvestia. According to Nechayev, Germany is one of the driving forces behind the West’s sanctions policy against Russia. The ambassador therefore denied Berlin a mediating role in the conflict.