No Leopard IIs for Ukraine, at least for now.
I hear that there are about 2000 of those tanks in Euroland.
Germany snubs Ukraine’s tank request
Germany dashed Ukrainian hopes that Berlin would finally decide on Friday to send modern battle tanks to Kyiv’s forces, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius arguing there was no international agreement yet on the topic.
Speaking outside a meeting of defense ministers at the U.S. Ramstein military base in Germany, Pistorius said his government had still not agreed to a Ukrainian request for German’s Leopard 2 tanks to aid an expected spring offensive.
“We all cannot say today when a decision [on potentially sending Leopard tanks] will come and what it will look like,” he told reporters.
Instead, Pistorius said, he has instructed the German army to “review” how many and which Leopards it could send, so the government can “act quickly” once a final decision comes.
Several European allies have publicly asked Germany to at least grant permission for other countries to donate their own Leopard tanks — a necessary step because of export restrictions on the German-made vehicles.
Pistorius said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz still needed to make a decision on these requests.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his call for tanks just hours before Pistorius spoke.
“We have to speed up,” he implored officials gathered in Ramstein. Friday was the moment, he insisted, not to debate details but to confirm one key principle: Kyiv’s partners will provide their modern tanks.