Berlin (EFE)
The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, announced on Wednesday the decision to make the “Leopard 2” available to Ukraine, according to a spokesman for the Executive in Berlin.
“This decision follows our known line of supporting Ukraine to the best of our ability. We act internationally in a very coordinated manner,” added the chancellor, according to the spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit.
The goal is to “quickly dispatch two battalions with Leopard 2 tanks.”
In addition, in a first step, Germany will make available 14 ‘Leopard 2A6’ that come from the stocks of the federal Army, “as added in the government statement.
The training of Ukrainian soldiers will begin quickly in Germany. Along with training, the tactical support package will include logistics, ammunition and system maintenance.
Spain opens to the shipment of Leopard in coordination with the allies
For their part, other European partners have already confirmed that they will also transfer their Leopard 2 type tanks.
Speaking to EFE, Defense Minister Margarita Robles stated that Spain is willing to send tanks and train them in their use, but always in coordination with the allies.
According to Robles, pending this coordination, it is still not possible to determine the number of units that, if any, could be sent.
However, the spokesman for the German Executive has specified that Berlin will issue the corresponding transfer permits to partner countries that wish to quickly deliver the “Leopard 2” tanks from their stocks to Ukraine.
Poland thanks Berlin for sending tanks and coordinates the sending of its own
Poland has offered to coordinate the shipment of this heavy weaponry with other allies.
The Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, thanked Berlin for the decision to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, while last sending its own devices.
In a message posted on his social networks, Morawiecki wrote in English “Thank you, Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The decision to send Leopard to Ukraine is a big step to stop Russia. Together we are stronger.”
The message was published a few minutes after the German decision to finally send Leopard tanks to Ukraine was made public, a decision that, according to what the Polish Deputy Minister of Defense, Marcin Ociepa, said on Wednesday, is “a radical change of mentality (of Germany ) in the context of war.”
International pressure, in which Poland played a major part, for Germany to send heavy weapons to Ukraine threatened, according to Morawiecki, to lead to a “crack within NATO.”
The Poles, who expressed their willingness to deliver a company of their own «Leopard 2» to Ukraine a few weeks ago, needed the express permission of Germany to export this material, as it was German-made weapons, and they even announced their intention to ship the tanks even without that permit.
Now Poland is trying to coordinate with other European countries to create a coalition for the joint shipment of Leopard tanks from various armies.
As confirmed by Morawiecki, Poland would have already delivered more than 270 Soviet-made T-72 tanks to its Ukrainian allies, but Polish General Boguslaw Samol explained to the press today that the “Leopard 2” “has the ideal characteristics for confront the Russian tanks.
A plan “doomed to failure”, according to the Kremlin
For the Kremlin, sending German and possibly American tanks to Ukraine is an “overestimated” plan that is going to fail.
“It is a plan destined to fail,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, in his daily press conference, in which he added that the supplies of heavy battle tanks are “overestimated” and will not give the Forces Ukrainian navies the advantage desired by the West.
According to Peskov, “many specialists are aware of the absurdity” of the plan to deliver German Leopard 2 main battle tanks and eventually American Abrams to Ukraine.
The Kremlin spokesman reiterated that Western tanks will “burn” in Ukraine, as have other weapons supplied to the country.
Peskov also referred to the cost of the Abrams tanks that, according to US media, the US is considering delivering to kyiv.
“First of all, European taxpayers will pay for it and Americans, as always, will keep at least their own,” he opined.
