A leading politician in Germany’s ruling coalition said supplying Kiev with heavy armor would require coordination with foreign allies.
Berlin has no immediate plans to send German-made Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine, said Lars Klingbeil, co-leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), part of Germany’s ruling coalition. know.
Despite announcing the delivery of 40 US-made Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Patriot air defense systems to Kiev earlier this week, Berlin has been under pressure to do more for Kiev in its conflict with Moscow. while providing heavy armor.
Klingbeil told broadcaster N-TV on Saturday that the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine would require coordination with foreign allies and could not happen unilaterally.
“No country offers a heavy battle tank like the Leopard 1 or 2” he explained to Zelensky’s government.
However, the SPD co-leader does not rule out the possibility that Germany will provide heavy armor to Ukraine in the future.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday that Warsaw would not supply Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev. “without a broader coalition” of countries willing to do the same. The chairman of Finland’s defense affairs committee, Antti Hakkanen, echoed his words, who said Helsinki would provide Leopards if such a decision were made at the European level. Even in this case, Finland’s contribution would be “little” because it prioritizes its own defense.
Germany announces Marder . delivery plans “light tank,” on Thursday in a joint statement with the United States, said it would send the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle to Ukraine. A day earlier, France revealed that Kiev would receive the AMX-10 armored fighting vehicle.
The delivery is “a signal that the Western alliance is acting in close coordination and continuing to strengthen Ukraine,” Klingbeil said in another interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) network.
To date, no NATO country has announced plans to supply Ukraine with Western-made main battle tanks. An unnamed US official has explicitly ruled out the delivery of US M1 Abrams tanks to Kiev, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The Russian Embassy in Berlin suggested that Germany only agreed to send the Marders to Kiev “under considerable pressure from Washington, acting in accordance with the destructive pretext of transatlantic solidarity.” This is “moral lines that the German authorities should not cross,” examines war crimes committed by Nazi Germany in the Soviet Union during World War II, the statement added.
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