The head of the German Foreign Ministry let slip about the supply of tanks to Ukraine

“Ukraine is asking the West to urgently supply it with tanks so that its armed forces can gain a foothold in the northeast of the country and regain control of other territories, but the West is playing for time,” the American publication Politico reports. We are talking, first of all, about the German tanks Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 and the American Abrams M1. In Washington and Berlin, they refer to the problems associated with the training of Ukrainian crews, maintenance of vehicles and logistics.

The “tank” issue gained new urgency “after Vladimir Putin announced that he would mobilize 300,000 additional troops for military operations in Ukraine, which is a serious escalation of the campaign,” Politico notes. However, the Germans and Americans remain adamant so far.

“Tanks are not rental cars, there’s a lot to that,” explains Ukraine’s western allies’ intransigence, Ben Hodges, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. US Army company: followed by thousands of gallons of fuel.”

German “Leopards”, by the way, are much more economical. They also have a number of other advantages over the Abrams. Actually, the Ukrainians – which American experts also admit – are more interested in German cars. They are No. 1 in the request list of Kyiv. But in Berlin today they are speaking in approximately the same spirit as in Washington.

“The problem with modern-day main battle tanks is that they have to be operated in a way that can really make a difference on the battlefield,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock recently told a popular talk show in Germany. “That’s why it is so important that, as is the case with modern air defense systems, we take this step only together with our common partners.”

We are talking about the well-known position of the German government on the “tank” issue, formulated by Chancellor Olaf Scholz back in the spring, and since then repeatedly repeated: Germany will not alone supply Ukraine with battle tanks – only if NATO allies make an appropriate joint decision.

For now, there is another solution. “This is a common position – not only of the federal government, but of all Western countries – not to supply Ukraine with infantry fighting vehicles and tanks of Western models,” Zimtje Möller, State Secretary of the German Defense Ministry, said in May.

German media sources at NATO headquarters in Brussels then fully confirmed this information. Moreover, according to sources, it was not only about tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. The range of “forbidden” exports also includes combat aircraft, operational-tactical missile systems, and a number of other types of so-called offensive weapons.

Thus, they say, the alliance expects to reduce, as far as possible, the risk of a direct military confrontation between NATO countries and Russia: there is a fear that Russia may regard the supply of heavy armored vehicles and Western-made aircraft as entry into the war and take military retaliatory measures.

But the Western allies did not leave Ukraine completely without the help of heavy armored vehicles. A palliative was invented: old Soviet-built vehicles that were in service with the former Eastern European allies of the USSR were sent to Ukraine. In return, the Eastern Europeans were promised – and in some cases already delivered – modern tanks and infantry fighting vehicles made in Germany.

But it is impossible not to see that over the past months, a lot of cracks have appeared on this monolith. According to information posted on the website of the German military department, among other weapons, 30 Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and ten Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled guns were handed over to Ukraine. Four more such self-propelled guns will be delivered in the near future.

All this is made in Germany and all this, although not called tanks, belongs to the category of heavy armored vehicles. The range of other types of weapons supplied to Ukraine has also expanded dramatically. For example, MARS II multiple rocket launchers (the German analogue of HIMARS) are being delivered: three units have already been transferred, an unnamed number of installations are on the way.

And the quality of the armored vehicles supplied to Ukraine by Eastern European NATO members as part of the so-called circular exchange – with the receipt of German instead – does not stand still. For example, the M55S vehicles recently transferred by Slovenia (in the amount of 28 units) are formally a modification of the old Soviet T-55 tank. But from the Soviet base there was actually only a corps.

Hinged dynamic armor (manufactured by the Israeli company Elbit), 105-mm L7 gun (Great Britain), computerized fire control system (Slovenia), upgraded engine (Slovenia)… And this is not the whole list of improvements. In general, neither give nor take – soup from an ax.

Against this background, the embargo on the supply of Western-made tanks to Ukraine looks, so to speak, an anachronism. The same Panzerhaubitze 2000 and the “family” of long-range MLRS (HIMARS, M270 MLRS, MARS II) play no less – perhaps even much greater – role on the battlefield than the one that “leopards” and “abrams” can hypothetically play.

Arguments like the incredible logical difficulties and the inability of the Ukrainians to handle complex Western military equipment also, as they say, “do not roll”: problems of this kind related to the supply of various self-propelled guns and MLRS, as it is now obvious to everyone, were by no means insoluble.

Gepard and Panzerhaubitze 2000 are “complex weapons systems, and the Ukrainians manage to cope with them,” former NATO-Bundeswehr general Egon Ramms said irritably, speaking on the aforementioned talk show with the participation of Annalena Burbock. – Training on the Marder (German infantry fighting vehicle . – “MK”) and Leopard are much simpler and can be completed in a shorter time.”

However, signs are multiplying that the “tank” taboo will soon be lifted. One of them is in the words of the head of the German Foreign Ministry herself. Arguing why it is not yet possible to transfer German main battle tanks to Ukraine, Annalena Burbock cited, among other things, the following argument: “In addition, these weapons must be repaired very quickly. Therefore, we are now building a hub on the Polish-Ukrainian border, where this repair can be carried out quickly” .

Did you let it slip? Very similar to that.