Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has slammed Germany for refusing to provide it with Leopard tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles it has asked for as Ukraine continues to try and push Russian forces out of territory they are occupying in the east and south of the country.
“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now — to liberate people and save them from genocide. Not a single rational argument on why these weapons cannot be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses,” he said in a an unusually blunt comment on Twitter on September 13.
“What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?” he added.
Kuleba’s comments come a day after Berlin rejected Kyiv’s call for battle tanks at a time when some analysts say Ukraine is gaining an upper hand in its battle against occupying Russian forces and high-tech battle vehicles would give them even more momentum.
German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that no other countries were currently supplying such vehicles and Germany would not do so unilaterally.
The German government has been criticized — sometimes even from within — for its reluctance to provide heavy weaponry to Ukraine while other NATO members have.
But Lambrecht said on September 12 that Germany has a leading role in Europe and must ensure it can defend itself.
“It’s not so simple just to say: I’ll just risk that we won’t be able to act, the defense of the country, by giving everything away. No, I won’t do that,” she said. “But we have other possibilities, from industry, with our partners.”
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-germany-leopard-tanks-marder-blunt-criticism/32031613.html
“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now — to liberate people and save them from genocide. ”
What do Germans care about genocide? They are committing self-immolation, and so they really don’t care about Ukrainians being murdered.
“What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?”
Answer: a Ukrainian victory
I will risk a prediction. Ukraine doesn’t need kraut tanks. It’s doing well enough and as long as the US, UK and others keep up the good work, this war will be won without Scholz’s help. And, one day, Ukraine will be a strong country, not only militarily, but economically as well. Ukraine will remember who was its true friends and who wasn’t. Germany, on the other hand, is a sinking star. As its population is aging and dwindling, others are taking over their country, and Germany will become a poor and pathetic has-been.
Liked Sir OFP’s comments. Still hoping some M1A1s find their way to Ukraine, but I’m not holding my breath for anything from germ factory.
I think Leopards are more suitable given the terrain, as Abrams are very heavy which is not very convenient when you have to use pantoon bridges and with autumn coming.
But I prefer Abrams over nothing, and I mean once you have them where they are needed they are probably the best tanks money can buy.
I think Ukraine would take anything that’s just sitting around in the former Nazi land, like these hundreds of mothballed German tanks:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d37a23a9cf347fac54ce84120b8e561a4849c9393c4b865e3c174b9c12bc5222.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/70e0cb6be686eede5f63a626d08037383f51d90aa01ae2fe260c9fdece81a0e5.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e937105fa5164210d1f76b211ca7d3d1e61057d7fc59e0389caba4fbc800885.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b521c063440512c9ec68e963ff047b144296f138a8c8401a495f9ed89bed6c6b.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b3d024acf1f496c0887e31ea218cbfade759528eb730abe718e7e6efe3bf865.jpg
Those aren’t tanks. They are Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
Stop it. There are tanks there too and the other vehicles are basically tanks also. They are armored. Thank you for monitoring the comments Webster 😉
I served in Armor. IFVs are held by the infantry and are not tanks. It takes far less to knock them out than it does tanks. There may be tanks in that I can’t see, but everything I can make out are IFVs, which are not tanks, regardless of what you seem to think.
The Abrams and Leopard weigh roughly the same, Bert. The Abrams has the advantage of being able to use different kinds of fuels.
Lambrecht proves herself to be just another piece of putinoid scum, like all the other turds that masquerade as politicians in quisling Germany.