Installing Gepard. File photoMOSCOW, May 12.Germany is delaying the transfer of Gepard self-propelled guns to Ukraine, without providing Kyiv with the correct information to receive weapons, Welt reports, citing sources in the government of the former Soviet republic. «Until now, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has not informed the Ukrainian government that Kyiv will have to order anti-aircraft guns Gepard installations by the weapons company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW). <…> Instead, Ukraine was told that it would receive tanks directly from the federal government, «the newspaper writes. The publication emphasizes that Berlin's promises to Kyiv are completely at odds with Lambrecht's comments for the German public, since the day after the announcement of the delivery of Gepard, the Minister of Defense claimed that the deal would be carried out through a contract between Ukraine and KMW, and the federal government only gives permission for the operation. remain unknown natural.
"As of May 6, the Ministry of Defense "does not know when the declared Gepard anti-aircraft guns will be delivered to Ukraine"", Welt quotes the response of the German military department to a request from MP Serap Guler.
Earlier, the German media wrote that Germany could not deliver the promised anti-aircraft self-propelled guns (ZSU) Gepard to Ukraine. In addition, an application from the German concern Rheinmetall for the supply of 100 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, as well as an application for the supply of 88 Leopard tanks, has not yet received formal approval from the German government, media reported. Russia has been conducting a special operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine since February 24. As Vladimir Putin emphasized, its goal is «to protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» The ministry called the liberation of Donbass the main goal of the operation.