In January, after much hesitation and pressure from other countries, Scholz promised Ukraine, which had been attacked by Russia, to supply battle tanks and armored personnel carriers. In March, the German Bundeswehr is to hand over 14 modern A6 Leopard 2 main battle tanks to the Ukrainian army. 40 Marder armored personnel carriers are also said to come from industrial stocks.
However, Scholz had also stated that it was a goal to “quickly” set up two battalions with other allies, as the “SZ” writes. According to the newspaper, that would be a total of 62 Leopard 2 tanks. So far, only Portugal has promised three Leopard 2A6s for the battalion, for which Germany has taken the lead.
SPD expert: Not happy with the debate
The German government is angry that other states have promised deliveries and are not going along with it, according to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” on Sunday. On Monday, the SPD foreign policy expert Michael Roth followed suit and expressed his dissatisfaction with the lack of commitments from Germany’s partner countries to deliver the Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine.
Biden makes a surprise visit to Ukraine
A trip to Poland by US President Joe Biden was originally planned. On Monday, Biden came – unannounced for security reasons – to the Ukrainian capital Kiev for several hours for the first time since the war began almost a year ago.
“I’m not happy with the debate,” said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag on Monday in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. It should be noted that “some are still struggling”, although there were “clear announcements weeks ago”.
Since September at the latest, there has been talk of a European alliance to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Roth added. He finds the discrepancy between announcements and willingness to participate “not helpful”. The German government should “discuss this behind the scenes” so that as many states as possible continue to support Ukraine.
Pistorius also increases the pressure
The German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) recently increased the pressure on the German partner countries on the delivery issue. On Monday, the minister visited Ukrainian soldiers who are being trained on the Leopard 2 and the Marder at the German military training area in Munster in Lower Saxony.
One is bad to speak to in Germany because of the tank deliveries to neighboring Denmark, for example. The Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen argued according to “SZ” with the critical public opinion in her country. Sweden and Finland are also not giving any signals for larger deliveries. The goal was 31 pieces of the more modern type 2A6 – 14 pieces are still missing, according to the calculation of the “SZ”.
Lack of spare parts and ammunition
Apparently there are also problems with the second announced battalion. Poland is supplying 14 of the older model, the Leopard 2 type A4, Norway eight, Spain five, and other countries could follow, the “SZ” said. However, this older Leopard 2 type lacks spare parts and ammunition.
Poland had previously demanded that Germany should guarantee maintenance and supplies. But the problem is that the Bundeswehr has not used the tank for around two decades. As a solution, Pistorius arranged a discussion with the German armaments industry and specifically with Rheinmetall.
This could now produce the required parts in Poland, for example, according to the “SZ”. The industry should also repair Leopard 1 main battle tanks, the newspaper said. More than 100 of these should then be delivered to the Ukraine, the armaments group Rheinmetall alone has 88 pieces in stock, according to the “SZ”.
Workshop center to be built in Poland
As part of military aid to Ukraine, the Polish government is now preparing a workshop center (“hub”) for the repair of Leopard main battle tanks. He also spoke to German Chancellor Scholz about this, wrote Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who attended the Munich Security Conference, on Twitter on Saturday.
“In Poland we have built various production facilities for ammunition of different calibers for our own supply, but also for Ukraine,” he continued. The day before there had also been talks with the German armaments industry.
Morawiecki told the PAP news agency that it was about repairing and modernizing Leopard tanks, which are soon to be handed over to Ukraine. Not only the Leopard tanks “that we have in our inventory, but also those that come back from the Ukraine, we want to be able to repair them, modernize them,” says Morawiecki. There were and are talks with Rheinmetall about this as well. It is not clear when the center will be ready to start.
Slovakia and the customs problem
According to “SZ”, the German Bundeswehr had bad experiences with another maintenance center in Slovakia. In the maintenance center in Michalovce near the Ukrainian border, rocket launchers and self-propelled howitzers, which urgently need maintenance, have been backed up since January because of a customs dispute.
Slovakia interprets the European customs regulations in such a way that imports from the non-EU country Ukraine, repairs in the EU country Slovakia and return to Ukraine require customs duty, since the repair and new parts are processed, it says in the newspaper as an explanation.
According to SZ, the first solution was to send several rocket launchers on a more than 2,500-kilometer detour via Poland to Germany. There they would be repaired and transported back to Ukraine. But there should also be another solution without larger customs payments, it said without further details.
It’s also getting tight with ammunition
Another general problem is the supply of ammunition for Ukraine. Here, too, solutions are being worked on, for example by the EU. There is a push for a joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine. The Estonian head of department Urmas Reinsalu called on the partners in Brussels to join his country’s procurement initiative. In the war against Ukraine, Russia is firing as much ammunition every day as Europe produces in a month, he stressed. That was “completely unacceptable”.
