The United States has signaled to the German government that it welcomes the idea of transferring German Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported this with reference to its own sources.

It is noted that Jake Sullivan, the Adviser to the U.S. president, informed Jens Pletner, the Adviser to the German Chancellor, about his support of the idea of supplying Leopard tanks to Ukraine back in October.

One of the publication’s sources reported that Sullivan claimed that the US would support such a decision but that it would have to be Germany’s initiative. At the same time, Washington does not request Berlin to make such supplies.

Another source mentioned that an adviser to the US president shared with a counterpart that it would be “good” if Germany implemented the supply.

FAZ noted that the German government did not deny information about Sullivan’s signal to Pletner.

The Government’s Press Secretary noted that they “are in constant contact with allies, in particular the United States, regarding joint efforts to support Ukraine,” but the details are “confidential.”

At the same time, journalists note that each country decides independently what to supply. Yet the German experts state that there have been strong arguments in favor of supplying Ukraine with Leopard tanks in the first place.

Gustav Gressel from the European Council on Foreign Relations notes that the Leopard is a standard tank of the Polish military, so Ukraine could have tanks of this type in service just across the Ukrainian border in Poland.

The publication shares that Germany could provide 80 tanks within a short time from the stocks of the Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann manufacturers. Another 30 units are used in the combat training center of the Bundeswehr to depict enemy tanks, and they could be replaced with old tanks from Ukrainian depots.

Ukrainian Negotiations

At the NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Bucharest, Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, discussed the transfer of tanks to Ukraine with his partners.

He mentioned that he called on the partners to change the logic of providing aid to Ukraine. It should not be done when something happened but when it is possible to prevent the actions of the Russian Federation and fight back.

“Therefore I said: change the logic, don’t wait until something bad happens, make this decision now to prevent a bad development of events, to, on the contrary, act proactively and free even more territories and Ukrainian citizens,” Kuleba said.

Previously, Oleksii Makeiev, Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, shared that Ukrainian diplomats are continuing negotiations on the transfer of Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine.

Back in July, Oleksii Reznikov, Minister of Defense of Ukraine, discussed the prospects for obtaining these tanks, likely from Spain. Then, he shared about the agreement with one of the friendly countries to supply this type of weapon.

In early August, the Spanish government decided not to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine since they are “in an improper state.”