The Bundestag sent the issue of transferring tanks to Kyiv “in a large circle”
The German Bundestag (parliament) did not vote on the issue of supplying Leopard tanks to Kyiv, proposed by the CDU/CSU opposition bloc.
Deputies sent its consideration to committees, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
On January 19, the German Bundestag refused to vote on the issue of supplying Leopard battle tanks to Kyiv, proposed by the CDU/CSU opposition bloc. However, representatives of the ruling coalition, which includes the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Union 90/Greens party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), insisted that this issue should still be referred to the relevant committees. parliament.
Conservatives from the CDU/CSU, among other things, proposed agreeing to the transfer of Leopard 1 tanks from industrial stocks or arsenals of third countries, as well as requiring the government to prepare the supply of Leopard 2 tanks.
It is noteworthy that the vote took place at the same time that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Berlin.
The American television channel CNN, citing a senior Pentagon official, reported that Austin would “put pressure on the Germans” to allow them to transfer German Leopard tanks to Ukraine, and Kyiv would have the opportunity “at a decisive moment” to resist a possible Russian offensive in the spring.
“Germany remains one of our most important allies, and I would like to thank the government of this country for everything it has done to strengthen the defense capabilities of Ukraine,” Austin himself said after a meeting with his colleague Boris Pistorius, without saying anything about the issue of tank supplies .
On the same day, the Handelsblatt publication, citing sources in the military-industrial complex, reported that, in addition to the German Leopard 2 tanks, the previous model, Leopard 1, could also be transferred to Kiev. According to the publication, in 2023 the German defense concern Rheinmetall could repair and re-equip 20 of these tanks, and another 80 within 20 months.
This would make it possible to transfer tanks to Kyiv without reducing the Bundeswehr’s own reserves, the publication writes. In addition, Rheinmetall is ready to buy and modernize a “double-digit number” of British Challenger-1 tanks from Oman, sources told Handelsblatt.
Как reported PolitNavigator, Ukraine may receive Leopard 2 tanks from Germany if the United States agrees to supply its Abrams tanks to Kyiv.
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