Germany publicly agrees that Leopard 2 tanks can be provided to Ukraine

The public pantomime over German Leopard 2 tanks, in which Washington and eastern NATO allies grumple and gripe about how Germany need to provide the tanks while Germany carefully reminds France and the rest of the world that they are committed but reflective New Cold Warriors, continues to play out. With Ukraine talking as if it’s already part of NATO and publicly shaming NATO to give them more arms and even to directly enter the war against Russia, of course.

Now that everyone has gotten their latest round of practice with their preferred public rhetoric, the tanks are going to Ukraine. Presumably a surprise to no one who has actually been following the controversy beyond reading the headlines.

Germany would not “stand in the way” of Poland sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine, foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said, in what appeared to be the clearest signal yet from Berlin that European allies could deliver the German-made hardware.

Asked in an interview with French television station LCI what would happen if Poland sent its Leopard 2 tanks without German approval, Baerbock replied through a translator: “For the moment the question has not been asked, but if we were asked we would not stand in the way.”¹ (my emphasis)

The German tanks are sold to other European allies including Poland on the condition they will not provide them to other countries without prior German approval. Poland has been implying that German was refusing to let them send the tanks to Ukraine. The German Foreign Minister here is diplomatically stating that Poland had made no formal request for such a transfer. Even before the German decision was announced, the Polish government seemed to be acknowledging that it indeed had not made the formal request previously.²

One of the cutesy controversies over the last few days was the new German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’ (SPD) comment that he had instructed his ministry to compile a count of how many Leopard 2 tanks were available. This prompted talk-show commentary along the lines of, “Whut, nobody’s even bothered to count the number of tanks they have?” TV pundits just wanna have fun, I guess.

But WELT News somehow has a count³ of which countries have how many Leopard 2’s.

Poland has offered to send Leopard 2’s and provide training on them. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz got to publicly tweak the US a bit by suggesting they should send Abrams tanks to Ukraine, which are even more high-tech than the Leopards. Which means that Russians capturing Abrams tanks. But my understanding is that the Leopards require less fuel that the Abrams do, so that is a fairly obvious advantage to the Leopards. And the Leopards also use diesel fuel, which is more readily available in Ukraine.⁴

But those of us who aren’t TV pundits can assume that Scholz’ government is happy to have provoked comments like this from officials of allied countries demanding they send more weapons:

The bosses of 24 major [British] Commons committees and dozens of other senior backbenchers have written to the German Defence Minister “at this moment of extreme urgency.” …

The MPs letter to Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius reads: “We are conscious of the very significant efforts Germany has made to support Ukraine, especially over the last twelve months. We understand the historic reasons for reluctance to provide German and German-made tanks.

“However, we would urge you at this moment of extreme urgency, to reconsider your position and allow Leopard 2 battle tanks – both German-owned and German-built – to be provided to Ukraine in the next few days.”⁵

There are several varieties of the Leopard 2 tank.⁶ Presumably few if any of the most advanced versions will go to Ukraine to minimize the likelihood they could be captured by the Russians.

DW News takes the public positioning more-or-less at face value in this brief report⁷:

1. Boffey, Daniel (2023): Germany ‘would not stand in way’ of Poland sending tanks to Ukraine, says minister, Guardian 22.Jan.2023. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/22/russia-claims-advances-zaporizhzhia-nato-squabbles-tanks-ukraine> (Accessed 2023-23-01).

2. Poland pushes for more tanks for Ukraine, asks for German OK 01/23/2023. ABC News/AP. <https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/poland-germany-ahead-send-tanks-ukraine-96603884> (Accessed 2023-23-01).

3. WELT YouTube channel (2023): UKRAINE-KRIEG: Viele Nato-Staaten schnüren für Ramstein-Treffen Waffenpakete 20.01.2023 (Accessed: 2023-20-01).

4. Sullivan, Becky (2023): What is the Leopard 2 tank, and why does Ukraine want it? 01/20/2023. Wisconsin Public Radio. <https://www.wpr.org/what-leopard-2-tank-and-why-does-ukraine-want-it> (Accessed: 2023-20-01).

5. Cole, Harry (2023): MPs from all sides demand Germany send tanks to war-torn Ukraine. In: The Sun Online 22.01.2023. <https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/21131163/mps-demand-germany-tanks-ukraine/> (Accessed: 2023-20-01).

6. Battle tank Leopard 2 - Variants (n/d). GlobalSecurity.org. <https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/leopard2-variants.htm> (Accessed: 2023-20-01).

7. DW News (2023): FM says Germany will let Poland send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. DW News YouTube channel. (Accessed: 2023-20-01).