The federal chancellor demands that the United States supply Abrams tanks in turn
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has yielded to international pressure and is willing to supply Ukraine with the coveted Leopard 2 tanks, produced in Germany and considered the most advanced in the world, various local media reported today. However, Scholz apparently conditions the shipment of these heavy weapons to significantly improve the Ukrainian counteroffensive capacity on the United States doing the same and supplying kyiv with Abrams-type tanks. That is the result of a telephone conversation held by the federal chancellor with the US president, Joe Biden. In Washington, Secretary of State for Defense Colin Kahl had rejected his country to deliver Abrams tanks to Ukraine due to their complexity of handling and on the grounds that they would be of little help to the attacked country.
The Bild tabloid further expands the conditions imposed by Scholz by ensuring that he also demanded that other European countries join the tank supply operation that the United States and Germany would lead by providing Leopard 2 in the hands of their armed forces. The head of the German government wants the United States and Europe to act in a coordinated manner so that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not succeed in dividing the Atlantic Alliance. The debate on the delivery of the modern combat tanks of German development will focus the summit that the Western allies celebrate this Friday at the US airbase of Ramstein, in the German Palatinate, considered the largest in the world outside its own territory.
In denying the supply of Abrams tanks to the Ukraine, Kahl claimed that they would be no help on the battlefield. It is “a very complex armament”, expensive, which requires a long and complicated training for its handling and with an exaggerated consumption of fuel by its turbine engines. “It is not the system with the easiest maintenance,” said the American politician, although he did not rule out that in the future this type of tanks will be delivered to Ukraine. The head of Defense in Washington, Lloyd Austin, also commented that his country does not want to deliver weapons to Ukraine that “they cannot repair, they cannot maintain and they cannot afford in the long term, because they are not helping.” Austin insisted that it is not about making symbolic supplies, but about delivering to Ukraine “what really means help on the battlefield.”
Since the start of the war almost a year ago, Olaf Scholz has insisted time and again that Germany will never act alone and that, when it comes to taking significant steps, it will always do so in coordination with its allies, especially all with Washington and Paris. A position that he defended again this Wednesday at the economic summit in Davos. This has not prevented the pressure for Berlin to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine to have increased significantly in recent days. Some 20 countries in the world have this type of heavy battle tank produced in Germany and all are obliged to request authorization from Berlin to deliver them to other nations, a clause that appears in all sales contracts. The Leopard 2 is considered one of the best and most effective tanks in the world and Ukraine demands it to break the front with the Russian troops, which has meanwhile turned into a static position war.
This Wednesday the European Parliament joined the pressure for Scholz to give in to the shipment of these weapons. The federal chancellor must “without further delay” set up a consortium of countries to make these tanks available to Ukraine, according to a resolution that was approved by a large majority in the Strasbourg chamber. In addition, Poland and Finland have already announced their readiness to deliver Leopard 2 units of their own armies to the invaded country. In turn, Great Britain recently announced that it will send its own Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, comparable in their characteristics to the Leopard 2.
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