berlin.- Western defense officials failed on Friday to reach an agreement on the export of German- or US-made battle tanks to Ukraine, delaying Ukraine’s hopes of quickly obtaining weapons it considers crucial for its defense against a new Russian offensive. expected.
At the end of the US-led meeting of Ukraine’s allies at the Ramstein airbase in Germany, US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told reporters that Germany had not yet decided whether it would allow that its Leopard 2 tanks were sent to Ukraine. Washington has been reluctant to send its own M1 Abrams tanks, and Austin added that he had no announcement on whether he would change his stance.
Britain has already agreed to send a small number of its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, a move it took in part to encourage other countries to donate their tanks after months of resistance. kyiv has been ordering hundreds of modern main battle tanks from the West to bolster its battered fleet of Soviet-era armor.
Ukrainian officials were hopeful that a new deal would be announced to send Germany’s Leopard 2 main battle tank to the battlefield, or at least allow other countries with such tanks to send them to Ukraine.
Officials from Germany and the United States, in particular, have been unsuccessfully negotiating on the matter for days. The wider circle of 54 countries present was also unable to come up with a plan under which other countries could send their own supplies of the Leopard 2.
Austin said meeting attendees were “pushing hard” to meet Ukraine’s needs for tanks and armored vehicles, noting the large number of armored fighting vehicles and personnel carriers the West agreed to provide this week.
But when asked if officials had discussed providing German-made tanks, Austin referred a reporter to earlier comments by Germany’s defense minister, who said a decision had not yet been made. And as to whether the United States would provide its own M1 Abrams tanks, Austin said: “I don’t have any announcements to make.”
