Germany is to supply 14 tanks to Ukraine, chancellor Olaf Scholz has said in a significant ramping up of western military aid to Kyiv.
A statement from the chancellery said Scholz had announced the move at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, describing it as the result of “intensive consultations that have taken place between Germany and its closest European and international partners”.
“This decision follows our well-known line of making our best efforts to support Ukraine,” Scholz said. “In this we are acting in close co-ordination with our international [partners].”
He said the goal was to put together two tank battalions made up of German-made Leopard-2 tanks for Ukraine. As a first step, Germany will provide a company with 14 Leopard 2-A6 tanks, from stocks held by the Bundeswehr, the German army.
Other European partners would then send their Leopard-2 tanks. Germany will start training Ukrainian soldiers to use the weapons system. The package, the chancellery said, would include logistics, ammunition and maintenance of the systems.
The statement said Germany would give export approval to all the countries that want to send their Leopard-2s to Ukraine. As manufacturer of the tanks, Germany has a say over their re-sale and export.
Russia has simultaneously warned the west sending tanks risked escalating the conflict even further while playing down their importance, claiming they would have little effect on the battlefield.
Dmitry Peskov, president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, said the public disputes around supplying the Leopard-2s showed “not everything is going smoothly, both in [Nato] itself and with the supply of tanks,” according to Interfax.
Credit: Source link
