MOSCOW, Jan 14 Ukraine needs new tanks, first of all, we are talking about the German Leopard 2, the needs of Kyiv are estimated in hundreds of armored vehicles, but Germany, despite the pressure exerted, does not want to be a «pilot» in the supply, experts said.
“A lot was lost between August and December last year. This was especially true for tanks. This forces (the West. — Ed.) Nobody supplies Ukraine. If earlier Ukraine could modify the supplied weapons, for example, Soviet ones, now the defense complex of Ukraine does not allow for revision, «said the head of the department of Eurasian integration and development of the SCO of the Institute of CIS countries, military expert Vladimir Yevseev.
According to the expert, the shortage of weapons will lead to the fact that the military units in Ukraine «will cease to be mechanized, they will become infantry».
«At the moment, deliveries are going on, but» not in the volumes that Ukraine needs, because Ukraine needs hundreds of armored vehicles. The deliveries should not be underestimated, but this is absolutely not what Ukraine was counting on. In fact, we need to talk about replacing Soviet weapons with Western ones, but we are talking about completely different volumes of weapons. The West will not go for such deliveries,» Evseev said.
Nikolay Topornin, Associate Professor of the Department of European Law at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Russian Foreign Ministry, explained that Kyiv is focusing on the supply of Leopard tanks, because they «can significantly increase the combat potential» of the Ukrainian military and change the nature of hostilities.
"If earlier the weapons that were supplied to Ukraine were mainly defensive in nature, then the Leopard tank is an offensive weapon. It can conduct defensive operations, but nevertheless it is a mobile tank that can carry out various breakthroughs,” he said.
The expert noted that, in general, Europe is unanimous that the supply of military equipment should continue, but there are nuances on the “tank” topic. According to Topornin, some countries, primarily those that are close to Ukraine and most actively support it, «offer the Germans to become 'pioneers' of this idea.»
«There are exports and restrictions on the supply of these tanks outside the EU and NATO. The fact is that the Germans are the manufacturers of these tanks, respectively, they have all the documentation, they also have patents. That is, this is their tank and only they can give permission or prohibit the transfer of tanks to a third party. Therefore, everyone is waiting for the decision of the Germans,» Topornin believes.
The expert recalled that in recent days Berlin has shown an obvious unwillingness to make a sole decision on the start of deliveries of Leopards, since the German government believes that this issue «should not be only the decision of Germany, it should be the decision of a group of countries or within the EU, NATO that all countries participating in the pool will be ready to support the decision to transfer tanks.
“Now the situation is such that everyone is putting pressure on Germany, that it must solve all issues, and the Germans say that this is a matter of collective discussion and there should be a collective decision,” he said.
The expert added that Germany is asking a «fair question» about the position of the United States. «The Americans have a no less modern Abrams tank, and America could also join in the supply and supply from its side, because the Americans are the copyright holders. So far, we know that the Pentagon has not spoken about such an initiative that they are ready to supply the Abrams to the Ukrainian army» Topornin said.
"Next week a meeting of European defense ministers will take place in Germany. I think that it is there that the issue of supplying the Leopard will be seriously raised and they will specifically talk about how to formalize this decision collectively … The Germans alone will obviously not make a decision on the Leopard tank, ”the expert concluded.
Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda, while in Lvov, announced that his country would transfer a company of Leopard tanks. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said on Thursday that his country is ready to consider participating in the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, but their number will be small.
In order to supply Ukraine with German-made tanks, countries need to obtain Germany's permission to lift export restrictions. In addition to Germany, Poland and Finland, Spain, Greece and Denmark have Leopard tanks, the Finnish media specified.