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Leopard 2A6 main battle tank of the Bundeswehr
Photo: Daniel Schäfer / IMAGO
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was finally able to spread good news on Friday afternoon, just in time for the anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine.
After a long struggle over the supply of tanks to the Ukraine, his ministry said it was "now able to provide a mixed Ukrainian battalion."
The German government had already decided at the end of January to set up such a battalion with Type 2A6 Leopard 2 tanks together with European partners.
The Bundeswehr, according to the actual plan, should hand over 14 Leopard 2 tanks from the stock for the association.
The tanks are to go to the Ukraine as early as the end of March, and the Ukrainian crews are already being trained at the Munster training ground.
tough negotiations
However, putting together the arms aid package for Ukraine did not go as planned.
Because after the Berlin announcement at the end of January, none of the planned partners initially announced that they would also supply Leopard 2A6 models.
As a result, Chancellor Scholz had to hold many one-on-one talks in the past few weeks and talk to partners like Portugal or Sweden.
Pistorius was meanwhile quite annoyed by the tough negotiations.
Only on Monday, during a visit to the Ukrainian training center in Munster, did he say that he was trying to get further commitments, but that he "couldn't conjure up" the remaining tanks for the package.
Instead of doing magic, Pistorius continued to call the European partners, who also have Leopard 2 tanks in their stocks.
In the past few days, however, a compromise has emerged.
In confidential talks, Sweden agreed to contribute ten Leopard 2 tanks to the battalion, and Portugal had announced three systems a little earlier.
On Friday, Pistorius and his military advisers decided that Germany would provide four more Leopard 2 tanks for the battalion instead of the 14 initially planned.
The models come from a reserve of five tanks that the Bundeswehr had actually planned to use as a replacement in the event of tank failures in the Ukraine.
Together with Sweden and Portugal you now have 31 tanks for the battalion.
Instead of one tank type, there is now a mixed formation
Nevertheless, the announced deal still has at least one catch.
Sweden only pledged to supply Type 2A5 Leopard tanks, a predecessor of the Type 2A6 that the Bundeswehr is selling to Ukraine.
The Bundeswehr had actually planned to set up a battalion that was as homogeneous as possible so that maintenance and repairs would not be too complicated for the Ukrainians.
Now, however, the press release also speaks of a mixed association.
The ministry said that in the end there was no alternative.
As a result, the German Leopard package had to be reluctantly increased.