After months of hesitation, Germany is supplying Ukraine with Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Patriot anti-aircraft missiles. After France and the US had also announced that they would supply the country with light battle tanks, 40 German Marder tanks will also be present, according to “Spiegel”.
After the US, Germany is one of Ukraine’s largest military and humanitarian supporters. All the more astonishing was the hesitation about the marten issue. The federal government led by Olaf Scholz (64) has long doubted – although the Bundeswehr has more than 100 units. The logistics are too complicated, the training of Ukrainian soldiers too laborious and the Russian response could be too violent.
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In addition, Germany, including the military magazine “Soldat und Technik”, justified the lack of a supply with its own security. After all, a Marder delivery would have meant that the Bundeswehr would have had to cancel a large part of the army-specific commitments to NATO in the coming years. To put it bluntly, if you are not able to provide NATO with 14 infantry fighting vehicles, how are you going to give Ukraine 100 infantry fighting vehicles?
This story lingered for a long time, despite the full marten camp. The turnaround was all the more surprising. According to Berlin, none of the three partners were pressured to make a decision, but the argument that no German tank would stand alone was dropped for Scholz with the announcement by France and the US. And without this pressure from foreign policy, this decision would not have been made. Pressure was also mounting at home – especially from the FDP.
No matter how important and correct the tank deliveries are, they still have a bitter aftertaste, writes “Focus”. How many Ukrainian soldiers would still be alive, how far could Ukraine push back the Russian enemy if the Western Allies had made this decision earlier?
The deliveries promised by France, Germany and the US represent a change in strategy in this respect: the American vehicle Bradley and the German Marder are not main battle tanks, but they are considered powerful enough to take on Russian tanks.
The hope – both internationally and in Ukraine – of further important tank deliveries is now all the greater. “After the marten comes the leopard,” writes Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (64, FDP), German defense politician, in view of the German main battle tanks of the same name. However, no such delivery is currently planned.