Putin’s nightmare comes true Secret documents have also been found about former US Vice President Pence

Suddenly everything went very quickly and after much hesitation and negotiation the decision was made: Germany is now sending modern Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and the Ukrainian defenders are also getting M1 Abrams from the US. The main hurdle for the main battle tank has fallen. Good news for Ukraine in light of the Russian invasion.

Yet time still passes. Russia and Ukraine are currently preparing for spring offensives. With the delivery of modern combat and armored personnel carriers, the Western alliance has created the conditions under which Ukraine can hold its own militarily in the war of attrition against Russia. But that is not everything.

The German Leopard 2 decision is a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin: the West is not giving up and is ready to support Ukraine in the longer term with the most modern weapons in its arsenal. Putin’s nightmare comes true.

The bomb exploded Tuesday evening. De Spiegel first reported the tank delivery, then the report was also confirmed by coalition circles on t-online. The German government is ready to hand over a company of Leopard 2 A6 tanks – 14 tanks – to the Ukrainian army. In addition, Germany gives the green light to all countries that also want to supply Leopard 2 tanks. An official confirmation is expected on Wednesday.

Shortly before, there were also reports from the US that US President Joe Biden was now considering the delivery of M1 Abrams tanks. The Wall Street Journal reported that the pledge for “a larger number” of the M1 Abrams could come this week. Biden promised Scholz in a phone call last week that he would have such a delivery checked, the paper reported, citing unnamed sources. The New York Times said the United States would send about 30 tanks.

It was a battle tank “double boom,” as former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk wrote on Twitter. The United States and Germany, along with the United Kingdom – which previously announced the transfer of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine – have taken military support to Ukraine to a new level politically. But that alone will not be enough.

Certainly, the modern Western-style main battle tanks have a lot of edge over their opponents on the Russian side. Germany sends 14 models of the second most modern form to Ukraine, range and firepower are designed in such a way that the tanks are superior in a duel with the Russian T-72 and T-90. In Ukraine, Putin’s army largely relies on T-72 tanks.

However, that alone is not enough, because the Russian tanks can currently make up for their technological deficit with their superiority. That is why military experts from Britain, Ukraine and the US estimate that 250 to 300 main battle tanks would be needed for a lasting effect on the battlefields and front lines. Western support is still a long way from this: together with Poland, the US, Great Britain and Germany have so far announced that they will hand over a maximum of 80 main battle tanks.

The advance from London, Washington and Berlin should therefore be seen more as the spearhead of a new western main battle tank alliance. Your advance is now putting pressure on other countries in Europe that still have many Leopard 2 tanks but have so far been hesitant to do so – Spain or Greece, for example.

Ukraine is also aware of the major lack of armor in its own arsenal and is promoting further deliveries. Following the reports of planned main battle tank deliveries, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for a final decision. “Our allies know how many tanks we need,” he said in his daily video address on Tuesday night. “The discussions must end with decisions.” At the same time, the president made it clear that his country needed “more than 5, 10 or 15 tanks”.

In the spring, Ukrainian leaders fear bitter fighting in the Donbass. The bloody battles for Bakhmut and Soledar could only be a foretaste. The Russian army is mobilizing troops and equipment for a spring offensive and Ukraine wants to liberate more parts of its territory in the coming months.

It is therefore an important step for Ukraine that the West further intensifies its efforts. While the Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks won’t be a quick help on the battlefield, Ukrainian troops could be trained on the devices in mid or late March if delivered quickly.

For the West, it is now a question of winning more states to the tank alliance. They must not only provide training, but also the logistics for ammunition and repairs to the main battle tanks. The political announcement is just the beginning, the main battle tank project can still go wrong.

For Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, the turnaround in battle tanks already marks the next defeat. His attempts at intimidation, the threats of nuclear annihilation from his TV propagandists – none of this worked. Also in Western countries people are becoming more and more aware that the head of the Kremlin will not destroy the world because of 14 tanks. Especially since Russia is currently so weak due to its war of aggression that it conventionally would not be able to attack NATO.

Yet the Kremlin has always built on this story to avoid what is happening now: the West is supplying Ukraine with its most modern weapons. The Kremlin has tried in recent months to upset Western politicians with its aggressive rhetoric, but this strategy appears to be losing effectiveness. And that gives hope, especially to the Ukrainian people, that they can eventually win this war.