Germany still doesn't have their functional Leopard tanks counted to "not cause false impressions"
The German Ministry of Defence was in no hurry to conduct an inventory of the existing Leopard tanks, in order not to create additional expectations and pressure on the government regarding their transfer to Ukraine.
Source: Business Insider, as quoted by European Pravda.
During the eighth meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Germany, it became known that the new Minister of Defence, Boris Pistorius, instructed to check the situation with the Leopard tanks available in Germany. After that, there was a surprise in the discussions as to why such an order was issued only now, after almost a year of full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine, and after such a long time of discussions around the provision of Western tanks to Ukraine.
Business Insider journalists learned from several sources in the Ministry of Defense that the previous minister, Christine Lambrecht, allegedly ordered not to conduct an inventory of the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 tanks available in the Bundeswehr. Among possible reasons for this, the desire not to create additional pressure on the government of Olaf Scholz regarding the potential supply of tanks was mentioned – on the grounds that if it turned out that the Bundeswehr counted fully combat vehicles, then this could be interpreted as a readiness to provide them.
Business Insider reached out to Christina Lambrecht for comment on Friday, but has yet to hear back.
As it was reported, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that the Western allies have not yet reached an agreement on providing Ukraine with Leopard 2 battle tanks at the Defence Contact Group meeting in Ramstein on 20 January, but he instructed his ministry to prepare for "the day that may come". At the same time, Scholtz denied that they allegedly put forward a condition that the US should also provide its Abrams tanks in order for the provision of German tanks to Ukraine to take place.
After that, some German politicians called on the government to at least give permission for the transfer of Leopards to Ukraine to other countries that are already ready to do so; and several hundred people organised a rally in Berlin for the provision of tanks to Ukraine.
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