Following intense pressure from its allies, Germany appears to be inching toward approving deliveries of high-tech Leopard 2 main battle tanks that Ukraine and its biggest Western backers hope will boost Kyiv's fight against Russian invaders.
Over the weekend German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin would not get in the way if Poland -- arguably Ukraine's most vocal supporter among European Union neighbours -- wants to ship Leopard 2 tanks from its arsenal across the border into Ukraine. And Germany is now not ruling out supplying such tanks to Ukraine itself, cautioning however that the implications of such a step need to be carefully weighed.against Russian forces -- and hopes for driving them out.
Getting Leopards into Ukrainian hands isn't as easy as rolling them across the border from friends farther West in Europe. IISS estimates that three to six weeks of training would be needed for operating crews and support staff to reach basic proficiency.
"In my view, that's the primary impact," Michel said by phone. "The second impact, of course, is to increase the number of tanks available in the Ukrainian arsenal," which he estimated at "several hundred" right now.Germany has final say about whether Leopard 2s can be delivered -- even from other countries' arsenals -- and has been reticent about anyone shipping them to Ukraine.
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