Topline
After months of debate and pressure from the west, German officials are set to agree to a plan to send advanced Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, providing Ukrainian forces with much-needed military support as Russia’s invasion nears its one-year anniversary and as fears mount of a potential spring offensive.
German officials are reportedly planning to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine.
Key Facts
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday agreed to send the Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a decision that also allows other European countries, including Poland, to send Leopard tanks in their arsenals to Ukraine.
The decision sets up a debate in the German Parliament Wednesday morning that would finalize an agreement to send the tanks.
Ukrainian officials had been urging Germany to send the tanks for months in preparation for a speculated Russian offensive this spring, with President Volodymyr Zelensky arguing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week: “We cannot go only on motivation.”
Leopard 2 tanks, which are produced in Germany, contain a 7.62 millimeter machine gun and 120 millimeter Smoothbore gun, and can travel at speeds over 40 mph.
German officials, however, had been reluctant to provide them to Ukraine over fears it could upset Moscow, reportedly saying it wouldn’t do so unless the U.S. provides the country with a supply of Abrams battle tanks.
Earlier on Tuesday, however, U.S. officials said the White House was nearing a decision to send a “significant number” of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, with an announcement potentially coming this week.
Katrin Goring-Eckardt, vice-president of the German Bundestag, tweeted, “the Leopard’s freed!”
Contra
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius last week shot back at accusations that Germany alone was opposed to sending the tanks, arguing several countries were “very carefully” weighing the potential benefits of sending them. German officials, however, had denied Poland’s request earlier this month to send the Leopard tanks to Ukraine. In his most direct criticism of the German government’s reticence to send the tanks, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Germany of “wasting time,” calling the war “our common cause, because it is about the security of the whole of Europe.”
Key Background
Last week, the Pentagon announced a $2.5 million military aid package for Ukraine that would include the first shipment of Stryker vehicles, as well as Bradley vehicles. It came less than a month after President Joe Biden signed the $1.7 trillion omnibus year-end budget that included $45 billion in aid to Ukraine.
Further Reading
Germany to send Leopard tanks to Kyiv, allow others to do so – sources (Reuters)
Germany set to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Der Spiegel reports (CNN)
U.S. closer to approving ‘significant number’ of Abrams tanks to Ukraine (Politico)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/01/24/leopards-freed-germany-plans-sending-leopard-2-tanks-to-ukraine-after-months-of-pressure-reports-claim/