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Leopard 2 A7 of the Bundeswehr on maneuvers
Photo: Patrik Stollarz / AFP
The promised Marder armored personnel carriers have not yet been delivered to Ukraine.
But a debate is already beginning in the traffic light coalition about training Ukrainian soldiers not only on the Marder, but as a precaution also on the Leopard 2 in Germany.
In the event that the federal government or allied nations deliver such battle tanks to Kyiv at some point in the near future.
It makes sense to "train other Ukrainian soldiers on the Leopard 2 at the same time," Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairwoman of the Bundestag's Defense Committee, told SPIEGEL: "If this battle tank is needed, we won't lose any unnecessary time."
The FDP defense expert, who has been campaigning for months together with the Green politician Anton Hofreiter for the delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine, referred to considerations from European countries.
"Some Finnish MPs are also thinking about relocating the Leopard 2 - if Germany allows it - and the Spaniards, for example, would also be willing to train Ukrainian soldiers in Latvia on the Leopard 2."
At the same time, Strack-Zimmermann is calling on the Chancellery and the Ministry of Defense to start considering further military aid in the near future.
“We need a strategy for assessing the military situation over the next few months and dealing with Ukraine's corresponding wishes.
So that we can finally get ahead of the wave and not always swim behind it.«
Strack-Zimmermann criticized the genesis of the intended delivery of 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles: »All this back and forth shows that the Chancellery did not prepare for it at all and hoped to the end that the Marders would not have to be delivered.
Now it's getting unnecessarily complicated.«
The question of which stocks the martens should now be supplied from could have been settled in advance, as could the training of the Ukrainian soldiers.
So that something like this doesn't happen again, Ukrainian soldiers should be trained on the Leopard 2 now, says Strack-Zimmermann.
The Green Hofreiter had already emphasized to SPIEGEL on Tuesday that in view of the "difficulties that Germany is having with the provision of martens", it would now be important "to start repairing the Leopard tanks in the industry." Hofreiter too thinks it makes sense to start training Ukrainian soldiers on the Leopard right now.
Because the armaments group Rheinmetall cannot prepare 40 martens from its own depots by the end of March, the Chancellery decided, according to SPIEGEL information, that the Bundeswehr should submit and cede part of the promised martens from its own stocks to Ukraine.
In a telephone call, the Greek counterpart Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos is said to have promised German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) without obligation, according to government circles in Berlin, that Greece could wait for the extradition of German martens.
Because the Greeks are supposed to deliver old Soviet armored personnel carriers to Kyiv via a so-called ring exchange and in return get Marder from industrial stocks from Germany.
The martens for Athens have already been largely processed by the industry and could be delivered to the Ukraine relatively quickly.
FDP defense politician Strack-Zimmermann thinks that's a good thing: If Greece "doesn't do it for the time being, so much the better.
In the Ukraine, the martens are needed much more urgently«.
