US pressures Germany to give Ukraine Leopard 2 tanks

New Delhi: Amid standoff with Germany over sending tanks to Ukraine, there are high hopes in Kyiv that Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting at Ramstein air base in Germany will end with an agreement to send German-made main battle tanks (MBTs) to Ukraine.

The Biden administration is stuck in a standoff with Germany over sending tanks to Ukraine. However, German officials indicated the apathy in sending their Leopard tanks to Ukraine until the US also decides to send its M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

The tank controversy erupted after the debate between the US and its European allies emerged over whether to send tanks and other weapon to Kyiv, including longer-range missiles that has capacity to hit targets as far as 200 miles away.

With fresh tension between Russia and Ukraine emerged, the UK, Poland, Finland and the Baltic states joined hands to extend a helping hand to Kyiv by providing them not only diplomatic but militarily support as well. These countries have been lobbying for NATO members to provide heavy weapon and other supportive equipment to Ukraine.

Since the full-scale war began on February 24, Kyiv is desperately asking for heavy tanks to counter its planned counter-offensive operations.

Ukrainian armed forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi told The Economist in January that Kyiv needs some 300 tanks to successfully press counter-offensives, along with between 600 and 700 armored infantry fighting vehicles and 500 howitzers.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas told Reuters Thursday: “Some of the countries will definitely send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, that is for sure.”

Meanwhile, Russia on Friday threatened of nuclear war if it lost its conventional war in Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s security council and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, wrote a post on the Telegram messaging app, saying that Russia could start a nuclear war if it lost its conventional war in Ukraine.

“The loss by a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war,” Medvedev wrote in a post criticizing Western powers ahead of a Friday meeting in Germany to discuss further military support for Ukraine.

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