Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba referred to German-made Cold War-era tanks early on Tuesday, saying, “Ukraine needs leopards and merders now to liberate its people and save them from slaughter, but it is possible that the leopards and merders from Germany are needed now.” A signal of disappointment,” he wrote. Kyiv believes it is vital to continue the current rout of Russian forces.
“There is no rational argument as to why these weapons are not supplied, only abstract fears and excuses,” Kleba wrote. is it?”
It is not immediately clear why Prime Minister Olaf Scholz turned down this particular form of aid to Ukraine. He was vocal in his support for Ukraine in the early days of the conflict, promising German aid and weapons, much of which has yet to arrive. There have been several occasions to question its involvement in the war effort.
Even members of the German leadership’s own governing coalition have led extensive choirs demanding that Berlin move away from its relative inaction.
“I hope the Chancellor will change course,” Marie Agnes Struck Zimmermann, head of the defense committee in Germany’s Bundestag, told local broadcaster ADP on Monday. . Members of the Liberal Democrats called the need to deliver Leopard and Marder tanks to Ukraine “incredibly important and should be done immediately.”
“Ukraine’s success can only be sustained if they have the weapons they need now,” Struck Zimmermann said.
Similarly, experts say the shocking Ukrainian forces achieved in two offensives in the northeast around Kharkov, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and in the south, adjacent to Russia’s strategic stronghold in Crimea. We believe we need these specific weapons to take advantage of our achievements. It was merged for the first time in 2014.
“Ukrainian tank crews have shown that they can conduct maneuver warfare and joint operations very effectively,” Rafael Roth, a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told German news agency DW.com. Told.
Germany has exported these tanks in recent weeks, but not directly to Ukraine. Defense News reported that in August he struck a deal with Slovakia to send Leopard tanks to Slovakia, allowing the Eastern European nation to release stocks of Soviet-era combat vehicles for delivery to Ukraine. in the last few months.
The Ukrainian minister’s highly critical public message on Tuesday represented the culmination of his months-long campaign to work with Ukrainian supporters in Berlin to provide more of the tangible weapons the country needs. He traveled to the capital in May to meet with a series of high-ranking officials, appealed for more military and financial assistance, and spoke out against his critics in documenting atrocities that Ukraine says it loyal to the Russian president. He frequently referred to various hosts as “true friends” of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin was committed.
He escalated that rhetoric on Saturday, saying after a meeting with his German counterpart: Possible. Schedule is important. “
Analysts have suggested that Berlin is aware of the limitations of sending tanks to the front lines, which could mean the additional weeks or months that Ukraine would need to start deploying tanks. It also remains unclear what impact the delivery of these vehicles will have on Germany’s own munitions and self-defense capabilities.
And while the prime minister has rhetorically backed the Ukrainian operation — he said in late August that the G7 economies would provide that support “as long as it is needed,” he offered a similar claim to Zelensky in a call Wednesday. – More recently, a few days ago, he offered a more sober assessment, warning last week that Germany had “reached the limit” of weapons it could supply to Kyiv from its own stockpile.
Underpinning Germany’s support for Ukraine is the ubiquitous threat that Russia could cut off what was previously considered an irreplaceable flow of gas and other sources of energy. The German government has faced criticism for years for approving the Nord Stream II pipeline from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. Prior to the Russian invasion in 2014, Ukraine served as an important hub for energy flows from the East to Europe.
Scholz claimed on Saturday that Germany was ready to “drastically cut off Russia’s gas supplies for war with Ukraine” and touted his country’s new terminal for imported liquefied natural gas. .
However, analysts and experts question these claims. German Municipal Association president Gerd Landsberg told the Wert am Sonntag newspaper that “hacker attacks and power grid overloads” could lead to severe blackouts, with too many households using electric stoves. He said power outages could also be triggered if , for example, instead of gas-powered devices. Berlin has not prepared enough for this possible scenario, Landsberg said.
Germany, on the other hand, is already facing a recession and the threat of a recession, threatening widespread commercial bankruptcy.
