Berlin will provide Ukraine with more armored vehicles and missile launch systems, but not the main battle tanks that Kiev has requested for its counter-offensive against Russia, Germany’s defense minister said Thursday.
Germany will provide two Mars II multiple rocket launchers, 200 rockets and 50 “Dingo” armored aircraft carriers, Christine Lambrecht said.
The Soviet-made BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles will also go “very soon” from Greece to Ukraine, as there was a deal with Germany to replenish Athens’ stocks with the more modern Marder armored vehicles, Lambrecht said.
Ukraine has repeatedly requested both Marders tanks and Leopard tanks of German manufacture. None of the numbers on the list of the last weapons promised by Germany.
Berlin has argued that it is not “doing it alone” in arms deliveries, with Lambrecht noting that no other allies have transferred Western-made battle tanks to Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba criticized Germany’s reluctance to send tanks, saying there was no “a single rational argument as to why these weapons cannot be supplied”.
Lambrecht’s announcement came after German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a speedy decision on the delivery of the Leopard tanks desired by Kiev.
Source: DN
