As Ukraine ramps up its pleas for more advanced weapons during what could be a crucial week of diplomacy, pressure is mounting for Germany to authorize the export of its main battle tank to Ukraine to help Kiev’s armed forces be on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine and better the initiative to take defense against Russian air raids.
That’s what a senior NATO official suggested on Tuesday Announcement of Great Britain that it would send 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine makes German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s reluctance to allow other countries to export German-made Leopards untenable. The British expressly hoped for this encourage other Western countries follow suit with the delivery of modern tanks to Ukraine.
At this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska, along with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, are applying further pressure, urging for more and better Western heavy weapons, including tanks and air defenses. Mr. Zelensky exerts his influence from afar.
“Ukraine appreciates the important new defense decisions made by the German leadership earlier this year,” Mr. Selensky said in a post on Tuesday Telegram messaging appin an obvious reference to Berlin’s decision to deliver earlier this month Ukraine with Marder armored personnel carriers and a Patriot air defense system.
In the post, Mr Zelensky said he held a virtual meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and again discussed “the need for increased defense support.”
Ukraine and its allies are this is getting more and more worrying there is a short window of opportunity to prepare for a possible Russian offensive in the spring. Russia has suffered a string of casualties since September, when Ukraine retook significant parts of its territory to the north and east. Russia responded by targeting civilians and infrastructure as fighting on the Eastern Front led to a stalemate.
The dispute over German tanks is expected to be resolved later this week when a meeting of NATO defense ministers is followed by a meeting of defense ministers from countries supporting Ukraine at Ramstein airbase in Germany. Led by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, both NATO and the Meet at Ramstein They are expected to discuss supplying western tanks to Ukraine.
Mr. Scholz is likely to want vocal American support and involvement in any decision he makes to provide German-made tanks or allow other countries, including Poland, to do so, analysts say. Polls show that Germans support Ukraine but are not enthusiastic about using German tanks to fight Moscow.
Mr. Scholz was reluctant to “go alone,” as he put it, or break with Moscow entirely. His caution has been echoed to some extent in Washington, where President Biden shows no sign of agreeing to send America’s main battle tank, the Abrams, to Ukraine. But the Biden administration has said it hasn’t stopped any ally from sending tanks, and analysts say the White House is careful not to be seen as pressuring Berlin.
Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday that Helsinki was ready to deliver Leopards but was still waiting for the German green light.
“Finland has some of these tanks,” he told Reuters in an interview in Davos, adding, “Ukraine needs them, but Germany has a key role to play in that.”
In an address late Monday, Mr Zelensky urged allies to “speed up decision making” and said the UK’s new aid, including Challenger tanks and a package of other sophisticated military equipment, “is just what we need”. He called the attack on civilians at an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Saturday, which killed at least 44 people, as a sign that Russia was “preparing a new attempt to take the initiative in the war.”
“All of this just underscores the importance of coordinating our efforts,” he said.
A small number of Western tanks will not change the shape of the conflict – Britain did so far obliged to send 14 — but several hundred could help Ukrainian troops push back the Russians from a larger part of eastern Ukraine.
Lara Jake contributed reporting.
