BERLIN – Germany will not allow allies to ship German-made tanks to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia, or send its own systems unless the US agrees to send American-made main battle tanks, said senior German officials on Wednesday.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have more than 2,000 German-made Leopard tanks, considered the most advanced in the world by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Several European governments have said they are ready to send German-made tanks to Ukraine, including Poland, Finland and Denmark if they get approval from Berlin, although none have made a formal request. Britain has announced it will send 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks, an older equivalent of the Leopard.
“One cannot distinguish between direct exports (of German-made tanks) and exports through third countries,” a senior German official said on Wednesday.
The export of significant numbers of modern Western-made tanks – something long opposed by the European allies of the US and Ukraine – would mark a notable escalation of Western support for Kyiv. Berlin has long feared that such a move could draw the country into a direct confrontation with Russia.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday Germany is “strategically dovetailed” with friends and partners when it comes to making decisions about supporting Ukraine, including with tanks.
Key Ukraine supporters from 50 nations, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, plan to meet at the US Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany on Friday to agree on a major new package of military aid to Kyiv.
Diplomats from several NATO countries said the issue of sending leopards – including Germany’s approval of third-country exports to Ukraine – will be one of the key issues at the meeting.
Mr Scholz’s government has received no such requests, several officials said, but if they did, they said they would respond quickly. The interagency approval process could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, officials said
Some European diplomats had hoped Germany would signal at Friday’s meeting that it would allow allies to send German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine. However, a senior European official said Germany is unlikely to make a decision on Friday and that it would likely take longer.
There are two main types of German main battle tanks: the Leopard 1, designed in the 1960s, and the much-improved Leopard 2 model. Germany itself has only about 15 Leopard 2 tanks that it could supply to Ukraine at short notice, officials said.
Mr Scholz’s government is divided on the issue: his coalition partners, the Greens and the Free Democrats, support sending tanks to Ukraine, while many of the chancellor’s left-leaning Social Democrats – including himself – have long been reluctant, especially for so long The US refuses to send its own Abrams tanks.
In April, Mr Scholz suggested that sending Western tanks to Ukraine would increase the risk of a nuclear war between NATO and Russia.
His concerns have since subsided, two advisers said, in part because a broad, global group of countries, including allies of President Vladimir Putin like China’s Xi Jinping, have condemned threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
But Mr. Scholz remains cautious. Asked Wednesday why he was reluctant to send Leopard tanks to Kyiv on Wednesday, Mr Scholz told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he was concerned the Ukraine conflict could become a global conflagration.
“The Ukrainians can count on our support in their brave fight, but it is also clear that we want to avoid this turning into a war between Russia and NATO,” Scholz said.
Write to Bojan Pancevski at [email protected]
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