Berlin (AP) -The German government, under mounting pressure, has refused to send the hardware, arguing it risks making such decisions unilaterally and becoming a direct party to the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv. Some news outlets also reported that Berlin refused to send Leopards to Ukraine unless the US committed to sending tanks. Washington has so far refused to provide Abrams tanks, claiming they are too complex to operate and require extensive training.
Last month, Germany handed over its first batch of more than a dozen Leopards to the Czech Republic to replace her T-72 tanks sent to Ukraine. Prague has pledged 90 of these Soviet-era tanks to Kyiv, with the United States and the Netherlands helping to refurbish them. In recent months, Ukraine has asked its Western allies to provide more sophisticated weapons, including heavy armor. Poland and Britain have pledged to send Western-made tanks to Kyiv, but German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday that NATO countries had failed to reach an agreement on the supply of the Leopard 2
The Czech Republic has not received a request to transfer the Leopard 2 it is due to receive from Berlin, the defense ministry said.
The Czech Republic will not donate to Ukraine the Leopard 2 tanks it receives from Germany in exchange for the delivery of T-72s to Kyiv, the Czech Defense Ministry said on Friday.
In a statement, the foreign ministry denied media reports that the Czech Republic and neighboring Slovakia were ready to hand over the leopards to Ukraine.
“This information is incorrect. No one asked or invited the Czech Republic to provide the tanks received from Germany under previous agreements in return for assistance to Ukraine,” the ministry emphasized.
Also at a summit held at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday, dozens of countries supporting Kyiv gathered to discuss the country’s future military support.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov stated on Friday that his nation’s forces will begin training on German Leopard tanks in Poland, despite the fact that Berlin and its NATO allies have not yet reached an agreement on supplying the tanks.
Speaking to US state media, Reznikov said that in addition to Poland, “countries that already have Leopard tanks can begin training missions for our tank crews.”
Reznikov is not the only Ukrainian official hoping Germany will eventually approve the handover of the tanks. “In any case, Germany will do it at a later date,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kleva said on German television earlier this month. “We have already seen this with self-propelled howitzers, the IRIS-T air defense system, and more recently the Marder and Patriot systems.”
Moscow says it doesn’t matter if the tanks reach Ukraine or not. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week, “These tanks can burn, and they will burn like the rest of the Western weapons.”
