![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Anything else would be irresponsible in such a dangerous situation," Scholz said, in a Jan. "Germany will not go alone… Germany will always remain united with its friends and allies. In the run-up to local elections in Berlin, Scholz said in a Monday speech to SPD supporters that Germany could not hand over Leopard 2 tanks, or indeed any other major weapons system to Ukraine, unless Germany somehow wasn’t acting unilaterally. Over eleven months of war, a public relations ritual has developed: Kyiv officials beg in Ukrainian media for Germany to please send Leopard tanks or Russia will defeat the Ukrainian military, followed by official German declarations to German news agencies of deep and serious German support and commitment to Ukraine, but, because Russia shouldn’t be antagonized, without Leopards. Since Germany is the manufacturer, even Leopards in the hands of Spain or Poland – both of which, among others countries, have declared readiness to hand over their Leopards to Ukraine immediately if only Berlin will allow it – are subject to Scholz and the SPD’s approval. The German opposition has criticized the position as enabling Kremlin aggression, but avoiding confrontation with Moscow is widely supported in Scholz’s ruling Social Democrat party (SPD). That and the fact that there are hundreds of parked vehicles which third party governments aren’t using and want to sell make the German tank the most logical option.īut German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his center-left government have repeatedly rejected the idea of sending Ukraine Bundeswehr Leopards on grounds it might provoke Russia. KMW’s Leopard 2 supply and maintenance network has long experience servicing Leopard 2 tanks all over the world. Munich’s Kraus Maffei Wegmann (KMW) has built a reported 3,600 Leopard 2 tanks of various models, and sold the combat vehicle not just to the Bundeswehr but across Europe (including to neutral Finland, Sweden and Switzerland), as well as further afield to Chile, Qatar, Singapore and Canada.Īccording to military analysts, the Leopard 2 is probably the best choice of NATO main battle tanks that could be used to equip the AFU. ![]() The main European alternative to the Challenger tank is Germany’s comparable Leopard 2, a high-tech, Bavaria-manufactured vehicle in the field since 1979. ![]()
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