BERLIN (AP) – Germany was under mounting pressure to supply Kyiv with main battle tanks, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed frustration at not procuring enough weapons as Western allies debated on Thursday how Ukraine could move after nearly 11 months of the Russian invasion can best be supported.
Since the UK announced last week that it would be sending Challenger 2 tanks, Berlin has been facing increasing calls to supply Leopard 2 tanks, or at least open the way for others like Poland to supply German-made Leopards from its own stocks.
A few hours after his meeting with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on his first day in office, Germany’s new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius left open whether and under what conditions this would happen.
He told ARD television that he was “pretty sure that we will get a decision on this in the next few days, but I can’t tell you today what it will look like”.
Austin will host a regular coordination meeting of Ukraine’s western allies at the US Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany on Friday.
Via video link to a meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy delivered a veiled criticism of key backers like Germany and the US, who have nevertheless been reluctant to send tanks.
He complained about a “lack of specific weapons”. He said through an interpreter, “There are times when we shouldn’t hesitate or compare when someone says, ‘I will give tanks when someone else is also sharing their tanks.'”
Ukraine’s foreign and defense ministers said the promised British tanks, while welcome, were “insufficient to achieve operational goals”.
“We guarantee that we will use these weapons responsibly and exclusively to protect Ukraine’s territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders,” Dmytro Kuleba and Oleksii Reznikov said in a statement addressing Germany and several other countries that have adopted the Leopard 2 commit to join an “international tank coalition”.
For months, Ukraine looked for heavier vehicles like the Leopard and US Abrams tanks, but Western leaders tread cautiously.
Germany has recently been a particular focus. Critics, including those within the German governing coalition, have long complained about Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s reluctance to take the next step in arms deliveries.
Scholz has been wary of pressure, insisting that Germany would not do it alone and pointing out the need to ensure NATO does not become a party to the war with Russia, although Berlin has made progress every time. He presents the careful consideration of each step as a virtue.
On Wednesday in Davos, Scholz avoided directly answering a question about leopards, saying Germany will remain one of Ukraine’s main arms suppliers and that “we never do anything alone, we do it together with others — particularly the United States.”
German officials have expressed hesitation in allowing allies to give Leopards unless the US also sends Ukraine the Abrams, according to a US official who was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.
When asked if Germany would only supply Leopards if Washington supplied the Abrams, Pistorius replied that he was “not aware of any such package”. But he insisted that aid still needed to be “coordinated” and that it was important that Germany go “shoulder to shoulder with the Americans.”
An upcoming new package of US military aid is expected to include nearly 100 Stryker fighting vehicles and at least 50 Bradley armored vehicles — but not the Abrams, which US officials say has complex maintenance needs and may not be the best solution.
“I think it’s no longer about avoiding going it alone, but about being alone,” said Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to the United States, on Deutschlandfunk about the calls for German tank deliveries.
Some eastern NATO allies have provided Ukrainian forces with Soviet-era T-72 tanks, but officials concede that supplies of Soviet-era equipment with which Ukrainian forces were already familiar are limited.
Senior officials from Britain, Poland, the Baltic States and other European countries met Thursday ahead of the meeting in Ramstein, Estonia.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said his country would send at least three batteries of AS-90 artillery, armored vehicles, thousands of rounds of ammunition and 600 Brimstone missiles, as well as the squadron of Challenger 2 tanks.
Wallace told The Associated Press that the decision to send main battle tanks was a “natural progression” of British military support to Ukraine and had been discussed with the US
“If you want to donate armored personnel carriers, you have to complement that with tanks,” he said. “We had some tanks that we thought could do that.”
Wallace acknowledged that the Challenger broadcast is “not the only magic ingredient” for Ukraine, which has said it needs 300 tanks, among other weapons, to drive out Russian forces. But he expressed hope that it will complement the Bradley armored vehicles that the US is already supplying and help others “lead the way” in sending tanks.
Estonia announced its largest-ever military aid package, which includes howitzers, ammunition, artillery support equipment and grenade launchers.
Elsewhere, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country had decided to send up to 50 Swedish-made combat vehicles to Ukraine, as well as a shoulder-fired anti-tank missile system and the Archer artillery system.
Denmark plans to donate 19 French-made Caesar howitzers.
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Jamey Keaten reported from Davos, Switzerland. Associated Press reporters Aamer Madhani in Washington, Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
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