Spanish Leopard 2E (Leopard 2 A4) main battle tanks during NATO maneuvers. /
The Government of Madrid needs a permit from Berlin to export Leopard 2 armored vehicles, which would place it on the list of suppliers of heavy weapons to kyiv
Conservative opposition and leading politicians from German government parties are demanding that the federal government quickly authorize and grant export permission for Spain’s announced supply of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. “It must be made possible urgently,” said Johann Wadephul, vice president of the parliamentary group of the Christian Democratic Union and the Bavarian Social Christian Union (CDU/CSU), in statements published on Tuesday by the newspaper ‘Augsburger Allgemeinen’.
“We leave kyiv in the lurch every day that heavy weapons don’t reach it,” adds Wadephul. After commenting that there is a threat that Ukraine will lose the war in Donbas, the conservative politician stresses that “the lives of innocent people are at stake, but also the defense of Europe against an imperialist aggressor.”
“I hope that the Executive grants the necessary export authorization quickly and proactively,” says Roderich Kiesewetter, an expert on Foreign Affairs of the CDU, in the newspaper ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’. Also the president of the Defense Commission in the Bundestag, Marie Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, demands a rapid German authorization for the shipment. “I hope that the Federal Minister of Economy, Robert Habeck, will immediately grant the permission”, affirms the liberal politician in ‘Spiegel Online’, who stresses that there is no “time for debates. In the face of heavy Russian artillery attacks on Ukrainian targets, urgent action is needed.”
Spanish media had revealed on Monday, based on sources from the Ministry of Defense, that the Madrid Executive is preparing to send to Ukraine some forty Leopard 2 A4 tanks (Leopardo 2E, in the name of the Spanish Army), manufactured German, as well as surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles. To export these battle tanks, the Spanish authorities need express authorization from the German government, a tripartite of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP) led by Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz. The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, did not want this Monday to confirm or deny this information and limited herself to commenting that it is an “extremely sensitive issue” that requires “great discretion.”
The sale of German weapons to other countries is usually accompanied by a so-called final destination clause whereby the buyer is obliged to ask Berlin for permission for their possible resale to a third state. It is unknown if this was the case at the time, although according to the ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’, Berlin has not yet received any request from Madrid to facilitate the shipment of these weapons to Ukraine.
The president of the European Commission in the Bundestag, the federal Parliament, the green Anton Hofreiter, has also pressured his Executive so that, in addition to heavy weapons, Ukraine receives more ammunition from the countries that support it in the war against Russia. “He is currently on the verge of running out of ammunition,” Hofreiter said in statements to the newspaper ‘Die Welt’, in which he stressed that “he quickly needs large supplies of ammunition” of all calibers.
air defenses
The shipment of this arsenal will introduce Spain to the club of suppliers of heavy weapons to kyiv, together with countries such as the United States -which has spent more than 2,700 million dollars on supplies of all kinds-, the United Kingdom -like Washington, will deliver powerful multiple rocket launcher platforms–, Germany, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Norway, Turkey or Canada. The European Union has also announced a package of 1,500 million euros in military equipment, but not heavy. Moscow has already warned Western governments against this type of missile, armored and, above all, long-range artillery like the one promised by London and Washington in the event that it could be used to attack Russian soil.
In the more than one hundred days that have elapsed since the beginning of the invasion, the Spanish government has sent machine guns, pistols, ammunition, first-aid kits, bulletproof vests and other military equipment to the Ukrainian Army. This is the first time it plans to supply it with a Shorad Aspide air defense battery – made up of short-range surface-to-air missiles capable of hitting enemy planes or projectiles – and forty Leopard 2 A4 main battle tanks. The tanks have remained unused for ten years at an Army base in Zaragoza and will need a tune-up before being exported. Spain will also train the Ukrainians in the handling of this weaponry.
Robles: «The cars have not been working for a long time»
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, assured this Tuesday that sending battle tanks to Ukraine “is a possibility that is on the table.” As for them being Leopard tanks, he explained in statements to the Ser, that they are at the Zaragoza base, they have not been in operation for “many years”, since 1995, so “today it would not make sense to send them because they are not in use” and they would have to make the corresponding repairs.
“That some type of important repairs can be made, we would see,” said the Minister of Defense, adding that their repair could be studied, although they are long procedures and it would have to be done in a “coordinated” manner with other countries.
Robles also made it clear that if at any time the Ukrainian government asked Spain for help to bring Ukrainian soldiers and train them here, the Spanish Executive would be willing to do so “without any doubt”.
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