“You need tanks”, – the Head of the Defense Committee of the Bundestag on the transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Head of the Defense Committee of the Bundestag, confirmed that the US supports the idea of transferring Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

She shared this on Twitter.

Strack-Zimmermann noted that support from allies was also evident during her visit to Washington. In particular, she emphasized that the transfer of tanks to Ukraine was the topic of discussion in the U.S. Department of State, House of Representatives, and Senate.

“Our partners expect Germany to fulfill its obligations. We must not leave Ukraine. You need tanks,” wrote the Head of the Bundestag Defense Committee.

Das wurde mir auch bei meinem Besuch in #Washington in allen meinen Gesprächen im Außenministerium, im Kongress und im Senat bestätigt. Unsere Partner erwarten, dass Deutschland seiner Verantwortung gerecht wird. Wir dürfen die Ukraine nicht im Stich lassen. Sie brauchen Panzer. https://t.co/Vm1VkS36xF

— Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (@MAStrackZi) December 7, 2022

The day before, journalists of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, citing their own sources, reported that the USA supports the idea of Germany transferring Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

One of the publication’s sources reported that Jake Sullivan, United States National Security Advisor to President Joe Biden, told his colleague Jens Pletner, the Advisor to the German Chancellor, that the US would support such a decision. But this should 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.

At the same time, Ukraine, for its part, continues its diplomatic work regarding the provision of modern weapons.

As previously reported, at the NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting, 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.

“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.

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.”