In a spectacular reversal, Germany finally decided to deliver Leopard tanks directly to Ukraine and also to authorize the re-export to kyiv of the same tanks that allies, such as Poland or Finland, have in their own stocks.
The information was announced by Spiegel, and the German initiative comes after Washington agreed, for its part, to deliver Abrams tanks, according to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.
Thus Olaf Scholz's demand for a joint initiative in which Berlin would not go "
it alone
" would be satisfied.
The minimum equivalent of a company of Leopard 2 A6, that is to say more than ten units will be directly released by Berlin from the stocks of the Bundeswehr, specifies the German weekly.
These are 62-ton tanks, modernized in 2001 and equipped with 120-millimetre guns.
The decision also comes after pressing Poland which, on Tuesday, had asked its neighbor to authorize the supply of 14 Leopards that the country has.
“
The Germans are delaying, procrastinating, acting in a way that is difficult to understand
,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki criticized.
Other allied chancelleries, including Washington, also expressed their annoyance.
For its part, the Pentagon has so far refused to send Abrams tanks on the grounds that this tank was not adapted to the Ukrainian war terrain.
The joint initiative also confirms the strengthening of the German-American security axis.
