Monitoring Desk
BERLIN: Germany faced an intense backlash from allies on Saturday over its refusal to provide Ukraine with its vaunted Leopard tanks to enhance its fighting capacity in the nearly 11-month war with Russia.
On Friday, around 50 nations agreed to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars of military hardware, including munitions and ample armoured vehicles needed to push back Russian forces.
However, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told media on the side-lines of an event at the US Ramstein Air Base that despite expectations, “We still cannot confirm when a decision will be taken on tanks, and what the decision will be when it comes to the supply of Leopard tank.”
On Saturday, several allied nations echoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s saying that the tanks were essential to Ukraine’s fight with its larger neighbour.
In a joint statement, foreign ministers of the three Baltic countries said they “call on Germany to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine right now.”
Ukraine needs Germany’s Leopard tanks to fight Russia
“This is required to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe quickly. Germany, as the leading European power, has a special responsibility in this regard,” stated the statement, tweeted by Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics.
Germany has been reluctant to provide Leopards or allow other countries to transfer them to Ukraine, with reports earlier in the week stating it would agree to send tanks if the US provided its tanks as well. Washington has said it could not offer its Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing issues in maintenance and training.
The United States Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina currently visiting Kyiv, asked both sides to provide the machines.
“To the Germans: Provide tanks to Ukraine because they need them. It is in your national interest that Putin loses in Ukraine.”
“To the Biden Administration: Send American tanks so that others will follow our lead,” the senator said.
Expectations had increased ahead of Friday’s Ukraine Contact Group summit, a grouping of nearly 50 US-led countries that are supplying weapons to Ukraine, that Germany would at least agree that other nations operating Leopards tanks would be permitted to transfer them to the Ukrainian army.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Zelensky attended the funeral of Ukraine’s interior minister and other senior officials who were killed in a helicopter crash incident outside Kyiv Wednesday.
The reason for the helicopter crash that killed the interior minister and 13 others when the chopper crashed near a kindergarten was still under investigation.
US officials said Ukraine still faces an uphill battle against Russian forces, occupying one-fifth of the country 11 months after invading.
But they spoke of Ukraine’s possible campaign to retake parts of its land in the coming weeks.
