KYIV – Ukraine has reacted to Germany’s agreement to transfer Leopard tanks by calling on other countries to join the tank coalition.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal thanked Germany for the decision to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces with Leopard-2 tanks and said that Ukraine expects to attract a wide range of partners in the tank coalition, reports Ukrinform January 25.
“Green light for leopards. Today, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a positive decision to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 battle tanks. In addition, Germany allowed other countries to re-export “Leopards” to Ukraine . We plan to attract a wide range of partners to the tank coalition in order to get as many tanks as possible in the shortest possible time. We are grateful to the German government and all countries that are ready to donate Leopard 2 to Ukraine ,” Shmyhal said.
As Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov pointed out on his Twitter, Ukraine received approval to supply Leopard tanks 120 hours after the eighth Ramstein summit.
“We have approval for Leopard. The Leopard coalition with its partners worked! Indeed, the Leopards look great in Ukraine ,” the head of the Defense Department said. He expressed his gratitude to German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, his German counterpart Boris Pistorius, German citizens and all who support Ukraine .
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also noted on Twitter that this is how a tank coalition is formed.
“Anyone who doubted this would ever happen can now see that nothing is impossible for Ukraine and its partners. I call on all new partners armed with Leopard 2 tanks to join the coalition and provide as many as possible,” said the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
President’s chief of staff Andrii Yermak stressed in the telegram channel that the first tank step had been taken.
“Next – ‘tank coalition.’ Leopards need a lot,” he wrote.
Andrii Yermak also said in other entries that “tanks are one of the components of Ukraine ‘s return to the 1991 borders”.
“Several hundred tanks for our tankers. The best tankers in the world. This is what will be the real punch of democracy against the autocracy of the swamps, ”said Andrii Yermak.
“German main battle tanks, further expansion of defense support and training missions, green light for partners to provide similar weapons,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel, commenting on a phone conversation with the chancellor. German Olaf Scholz.
He expressed his gratitude to the German Chancellor and “to all our friends in Germany”.
Leopard tank deliveries: the decision is made
German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has officially confirmed the intention to supply Ukraine with Leopard battle tanks. He said so during a speech at the Bundestag in Berlin on January 25, reports Deutsche Welle. Initially, Germany will provide Kiev with a company of 14 Leopard-2 A6 tanks from Bundeswehr reserves. Berlin will also allow other countries to re-export tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The task is to quickly assemble two tank battalions for Ukraine , Scholz stressed.
Information indicates that the composition of the tank battalion of the Bundeswehr usually includes 44 tanks. So, we can talk about the supply to Ukraine from European partners of about 90 combat vehicles of the Leopard-2 type.
According to the German edition Spiegel, twelve allied countries of Ukraine have agreed to transfer Leopard-2 main battle tanks of various modifications to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
On Tuesday it became known that the united states will supply Ukraine with dozens of modern M1 Abrams tanks, which are much less common in Europe .
A few days ago, Euronews reported on January 25, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Warsaw would form an alternative coalition of countries ready to supply tanks to Ukraine if Berlin did not agree to the transfer of armored vehicles. According to him, Poland has decided to provide Ukraine with a tank company (up to fourteen vehicles) and will act at its discretion, regardless of Berlin’s position.
Reaction in Russia
Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechaev commented on the decision of the German government to supply Ukraine with Leopard-2 tanks, it is noted that this “extremely dangerous decision brings the conflict to a new level of confrontation and contradicts statements by German politicians about the reluctance of the FRG to get involved.
“Once again we are convinced that Germany, like its closest allies, is not interested in a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis, it is set up for its permanent escalation and unlimited pumping of the regime. of Kiev with increasingly deadly weapons. The “red lines” are a thing of the past”, reports the Russian press according to the words of Ambassador Sergey Nechayev.
He also noted that “the choice of Berlin means the definitive refusal of the Federal Republic of Germany to recognize its historical responsibility towards our people for the terrible and timeless crimes of Nazism during the Great Patriotic War, and the forgetting of the difficult path from office”. -War reconciliation between Russians and Germans.
Tanks for the main objective of Ukraine
political scientist Oleg Lisny stresses that Germany’s agreement to supply tanks is a comprehensive approach to supporting Ukraine .
“It’s not just a military stage, or a political stage, it’s a tandem in which the main goal is the victory of Ukraine . Now I would not consider what scale we are talking about, ten or parts of tanks that the Western coalition is ready to supply to Ukraine , or – when it comes to hundreds of vehicles, and it will be soon. The main thing is that the world has passed a difficult stage, it understands what is doing Russia and what it takes to defeat it,” Oleg Lisny told the media Russian Service Correspondent.
He notes that the agreement to send tanks to Ukraine is only the beginning and is part of the conditional list of demands for a successful war against the aggressor.
“Then there should be planes and missiles that strike from a long distance. Now we see that the West has already decided the fate of Russia ,” says Oleg Lisny.
Providing tanks is a political decision
International political scientist, and co-founder of the “United for Ukraine ” analysis center Anton Kuchukhidze notes the intensity of the political decisions which help to strengthen Ukraine ‘s potential.
“In fact, all barriers are removed from the states – France supplies offensive weapons, Germany has removed restrictions inside the country as much as possible, makes military-technical decisions that are beneficial for Ukraine , and this is already a political turning point that will bring victory to Ukraine ”, declared Anton Kuchukhidze to the correspondent of the media.
He notes that there are several factors that allow Ukraine to quickly take positive decisions on the supply of military equipment.
“The first is a purely Ukrainian factor, the unity of the people, victories on the battlefield, efficiency, including the use of Western technology, active diplomacy of the Ukrainian president. The great diplomatic marathon that he leads is dozens of negotiations a day and the intensive work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ”said Anton Kuchukhidze.
On the international scene, according to him, the perception of the threat that comes from Russia has changed: “The West has understood that it is not only a threat for Ukraine , but for all of central Europe . And these two factors make it possible to effectively develop military-technical cooperation in favor of Ukraine ”, underlines Anton Kuchukhidze.
