SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Germany to backfill East European heavy weapons for Ukraine
Berlin, April 21 (AFP) Apr 21, 2022
Germany has reached an agreement with eastern European partners to supply Ukraine with a new batch of heavy weapons "in the next few days", Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Thursday.

"It's about tanks, armoured vehicles, or other options individual countries are able to give," Lambrecht told the NTV broadcaster.

Germany will then replenish these stocks, she said, without giving further details.

The deliveries must happen quickly because "military experts agree that the next two weeks will be decisive in Ukraine's fight against Russia", she said.

The tanks will include T-72 models from Slovenia, a government source told AFP, confirming German media reports.

These will be replenished with Fuchs armoured vehicles and Marder infantry fighting vehicles, the source said.

Lambrecht also said Germany would train Ukrainian soldiers to use German-made Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers -- reportedly due to be sent by the Netherlands.

Germany cannot send the Panzerhaubitze 2000 artillery systems itself because its army "does not have the stocks", Lambrecht said. "But where we can provide training, we will do that."

Germany has come under fire for refusing to directly send heavy weapons to Ukraine, even as allies such as the United States, Britain, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands up their deliveries.

But the government has said that after decades of chronic underinvestment, the Bundeswehr German army is simply not in a position to send the weapons Ukraine wants.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday raised the possibility of eastern European partners sending older, Russia-made "weapons systems" to Ukraine.

Asked whether Germany really could not deliver heavy weapons from Bundeswehr stocks, Lambrecht said this was impossible "if I want to continue to guarantee national and allied defence".

"In the future, we must be much better equipped. We must no longer allow the Bundeswehr to be cut down to the point where we are in the situation we are in at the moment," she said.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
NASA Mars Orbiter Captures Volcano Peeking Above Morning Cloud Tops
Unexpected Dust Patterns Found on Uranus Moons Confound Scientists
Earth-based telescopes offer a fresh look at cosmic dawn

24/7 Energy News Coverage
UK nuclear site could leak until 2050s, MPs warn
ABC Solar Marks 25 Years With Grand Opening at AltaSea
UK plans solar 'revolution' for new homes

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Attacking Iran, Israel brazenly defies 'man of peace' Trump
Rubio warns Iran against targeting US over Israeli strikes
AI-enabled control system helps autonomous drones stay on target in uncertain environments

24/7 News Coverage
If people stopped having babies, how long would it be before humans were all gone?
UK's sunniest spring yields unusually sweet strawberries
Nations call for strong plastics treaty as difficult talks loom



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.