Germany confirms tanks will be sent to Ukraine after Scholz U-turn

Germany has approved the delivery of Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, after weeks of pressure from Kyiv and many allies.

Berlin will provide a company of 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks from the Bundeswehr stocks and is also granting approval for other European countries to send tanks from their own stocks to Ukraine.

“The aim is to quickly assemble two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

Training of Ukrainian forces on using the tanks will “begin quickly” in Germany.

The package, agreed after intensive talks with Ukraine’s allies, also includes logistics, ammunition and maintenance for the battle tanks.

Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, said: “This decision follows our well-known line of supporting Ukraine to the best of our abilities.”

Rishi Sunak welcomed the move, announced this morning, as the “right decision by Nato allies and friends” after a long period of negotiation and hesitation by Berlin.

“Alongside Challenger 2s, they will strengthen Ukraine’s defensive firepower,” Sunak said. “Together, we are accelerating our efforts to ensure Ukraine wins this war and secures a lasting peace.”

Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister of Poland, thanked Scholz, tweeting: “The decision to send Leopards to Ukraine is a big step towards stopping Russia.

American officials indicated that the Biden administration was ready to give the Ukrainians 30 M1 Abrams main battle tanks after months of stonewalling their appeals for the armour. Shortly afterwards Scholz yielded to sustained international pressure and signalled that his country would send about 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks.

Russia denounced the potential delivery of American battle tanks to Ukraine as a “blatant provocation”.

The move, coming hours after Poland had sought Berlin’s permission to donate some of its own German-manufactured Leopard 2s to Ukraine, effectively gives the green light to a dozen other European allies such as Norway, Spain and Finland, to do the same.

The Kremlin said today that if western countries supply Ukraine with heavy tanks they will be destroyed on the battlefield.

 “Technologically, this is a failed plan. This is an overestimation of the potential that this will add to the Ukrainian army. These tanks burn like all the rest. They are just very expensive,” President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov warned that the delivery of German-made Leopard tanks would “bring nothing good to the future relationship” between Berlin and Moscow. “They will leave a lasting mark,” he said.

The UK Ministry of Defence said today that Russia would likely deploy its newest T-14 Armata main battle tanks in Ukraine for the first time, despite reports of the model being unreliable.

Before their production in 2022, Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, described this batch of T-14s as “experimental-industrial”, leading the MoD to believe the tanks will not meet the usual operational standards.

Russian officials have described problems with the tank’s engine and thermal imaging systems in recent years.

A “tank coalition” across Europe could provide as many as 90 of the powerful machines which, with the arrival of the American tanks, could help to shape the course of the war, military analysts suggest.

However, it may be some time before significant numbers appear on the battlefield because some of the surplus Leopard 2s are in a “deplorable” condition, and Ukrainian troops must be trained to use them.

Britain led the way ten days ago, announcing the delivery of 14 Challenger 2 tanks. There are suggestions that France may offer a contingent of its Leclerc battle tanks.

Ukraine says it needs between 200 and 300 modern western tanks if it is to hold its ground and make territorial advances in the spring, when Russia is expected to launch an onslaught with hundreds of thousands of freshly mobilised troops.

Ukraine had about 900 Soviet-era tanks when Russia invaded last February. Several hundred have been lost in battle but more than a hundred have been captured from the Russians, with about 300 others supplied by European backers such as Poland and the Czech Republic. However, Ukrainian soldiers say these vehicles are often outdated and unreliable, or simply outgunned by Russian tanks.

Kyiv’s appeals had repeatedly fallen on deaf ears in Berlin and Washington, culminating in an outpouring of frustration after a partially fruitless summit last Friday at the Ramstein air base in southwestern Germany.

Reports suggest that Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, had a “tense” altercation with Wolfgang Schmidt, Scholz’s chief of staff, over the German chancellor’s insistence that he would send Leopard 2 tanks only if the Americans agreed to deliver the M1 Abrams.

American and German officials held intense negotiations in Washington, with Poland increasing the pressure on Scholz by claiming it was prepared to send its Leopard 2s to Ukraine without Berlin’s permission.

It is unclear why both sides appear to have suddenly given way. The White House declined to comment on the subject. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said the shift was long overdue and the US needed to increase its support. He added: “It’s time, past time, for the Biden administration and our allies to get serious about helping Ukraine finish the job and retake their country.”

Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, said as recently as yesterday that there was no consensus about sending the Ukrainians tanks. Sources in Germany’s ruling coalition say Scholz had been adamant that Germany could not be seen to take the lead on the tank initiative alone.

The Leopard 2A6 is the penultimate generation of Europe’s most popular battle tank, with heavy composite armouring, a 120mm smoothbore main gun and a range of more than 200 miles. Introduced from the early 2000s, it provides the backbone of Germany’s tank fleet. Portugal, Finland and Canada operate the same model.

Germany is believed to be preparing to send Ukraine the tanks out of its own armed forces’ stocks in order to ensure the delivery is as swift as possible, although the condition of the spares is not publicly known.

There are signs that Switzerland is prepared to allow Germany, Denmark and Spain to give Ukraine Swiss-made artillery and ammunition, in what would be a significant departure from the country’s highly prized policy of neutrality.

Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, who spent nine months lobbying Scholz for the tanks while he was the ambassador to Germany, reacted jubilantly.

 “Hallelujah! Jesus Christ!” he wrote on Twitter. “And now, dear allies, let’s establish a powerful fighter jet coalition for Ukraine with F-16 and F-35, Eurofighter & Tornado, Rafale & Gripen jets and everything you can deliver to save Ukraine.”