Pressure on Berlin from all sides to provide Leopard tanks to Kiev

Davos [Switzerland], January 21: The pressure is building fast on Germany to supply battle tanks to Ukraine, with Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelensky among others taking turns on Thursday to criticize Berlin's hesitancy in delivering heavy arms.
"There are times when we shouldn't hesitate and say: 'I will give tanks if someone else shares their tanks.' I don't think this is the right strategy to go with," Zelensky told a panel on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Zelensky has been pleading for Germany to send Leopard 2 battle tanks. But so far Chancellor Olaf Scholz has resisted, saying he needed to be in lockstep with NATO allies, namely the United States. The German government and freshly installed Defence Minister Boris Pistorius will face a major test on Friday when allies meet at a US Air Force base in Ramstein in western Germany to discuss arms for Ukraine. The pressure is coming at Berlin from nearly all fronts.
In Kiev, the head of the president's office, AndriyYermak, once again urged the delivery of tanks.
"The issue of tanks for Ukraine should be resolved as soon as possible," Yermak wrote on the Telegram messaging service on Thursday. He added that the same applies to additional air defence systems. "We don't have time, the world doesn't have that time either," he said.
Foreign Minister DmytroKuleba and Defence Minister OleksiiReznikov also weighed in: "We guarantee that we will use these weapons responsibly and exclusively for the purposes of protecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine within internationally recognized borders," they said in a joint statement.
They mentioned 12 states by name, including Germany, Turkey and Spain. Poland and Finland, also listed, have already announced their intention to supply more than two dozen Leopard tanks as part of an "international tank coalition." The German-built Leopard tank is widely exported and is used by armed forces of various countries.
In the appeal, the Ukrainian ministers wrote that "Russia retains a substantial quantitative advantage in troops, weapons and military equipment." There was a "threat of a new full-scale offensive by the Russian forces," Kuleba and Reznikov warned.
Scholz's main domestic political opponents, the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), said on Thursday that "it is now time to effectively support Ukraine." "It is now time for Germany to finally give the green light for the delivery of battle tanks," said senior CDU lawmaker Johann Wadephul.
The head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, also called for Germany to step up.
"If you want to lead, that can't mean always doing the bare minimum last," the former top diplomat told dpa a day ahead of the key meeting.
Estonia's Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur also called on Germany and other allies to supply modern weapons systems to Ukraine.
"Estonia strongly supports providing Ukraine with all the necessary military equipment to win this war, including heavy equipment such as Leopard tanks," he told dpa in the capital Tallinn ahead of a meeting of several European defence ministers in Estonia on Thursday.
"The outcome of this war will determine the future of our common security," Pevkur stressed.
Poland said on Thursday that it could send some of its German-made Leopards to Ukraine even without authorization from Berlin.
Germany is currently not giving its explicit approval for such deliveries from other countries, which is causing further frustration among allies.
Britain has already announced that is sending its Challenger 2 tanks to the beleaguered east European nation.
German media outlets including SüddeutscheZeitung reported on Wednesday night that Scholz was now ready to provide the Leopards as long as Washington provides comparable tanks.
Just over 11 months ago, Russia attacked Ukraine. Despite Ukrainian successes, a good 18% of the country's territory, including the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014, is still under Russian control.
The Ukrainian general staff had estimated that it needs 300 tanks for a successful counter-offensive.
Ahead of the Ramstein meeting, Russia's former president, Dmitry Medvedev, renewed the Kremlin's nuclear threats.
He urged the participants to draw an "elementary conclusion," namely: "The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may entail the start of a nuclear war." Nuclear powers do not lose major conflicts, said Medvedev, who sits on Russia's National Security Council.
Source: Qatar Tribune