The armor will arrive in late March, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says
A Leopard 2 main battle tank of the German armed forces Bundeswehr fires its gun during drills. © AFP / Ronny Hartmann
The Ukrainian military is going to be boosted by Leopard 2 main battle tanks by “the end of the first quarter” of this year, Germany’s new defense minister Boris Pistorius has promised.
Pistorius made the statement on Thursday as he visited German troops in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the central region of the country.
His words mean that the armor, which the Kiev government had been demanding for a long time amid its conflict with Moscow, will be sent to Ukraine by late March.
According to Focus magazine, the minister was asked by a journalist if the delivery of German-made Leopard 2s would be “timely” for Ukraine in light of allegations that Russia is planning an offensive in spring. Pistorius assured the reporter that it would.
Despite ruling out such a possibility for months, Germany on Wednesday officially approved the supply of 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks from its own stock to the Kiev government. Berlin also said that it’s going to allow other countries willing to provide German armor to the Zelensky government to do so.
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The announcement came several hours before the US greenlighted the delivery of 31 of its M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. The pledge was made by the Biden administration despite the Pentagon having said earlier that Abrams tanks were inappropriate for the conflict between Kiev and Moscow as they were difficult to maintain, ran on jet fuel and required extensive training to operate.
According to media reports, Berlin had insisted during a high-profile meeting of Ukraine’s backers at the Ramstein US Air Base in Germany earlier this month that it would only send its armor to Ukraine if Washington does the same.
The first Western nation to promise its main battle tanks to Kiev was the UK, with London saying mid-January that it was going to give the Zelensky government 14 Challenger 2 main battle tank.
On Thursday, Poland’s Deputy Defense Minister Wojciech Skurkiewicz told Radio Plus that Warsaw was ready to provide 14 Leopard 2s to Kiev after the Ukrainian troops finish training to operate them, which could happen in “several weeks.”
Kremlin press-secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the announced deliveries of tanks by Germany, the US and UK is viewed in Moscow as a “direct involvement” of NATO in the conflict in Ukraine. “And this involvement is growing,” he stressed.
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Earlier this month, Peskov pointed out that the Western armor won’t change the outcome of the fighting and that those tanks will “burn” if they’re supplied.
