Ramstein Did Not Agree On Transfer Of Tanks To Ukraine
At a meeting of the contact group on defense issues in Ramstein (Germany), they did not agree on a decision on the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated this, CNBC reports on Friday, January 20.
The Western allies agreed to increase military support for Ukraine, but Germany hesitates about the supply of Leopard 2 tanks, despite calls from Kyiv and its allies, the edition notes.
“Today, we can all not yet say when a decision will be made about Leopard and what this decision will look like. We are not really hesitating we are just very carefully balancing all the pros and contra [cons] — we are not talking just about delivering anything to anybody, this is a new kind of measure we would choose, so we have to be careful because we have a duty to look carefully and intensively at what might be the consequences for anybody in that conflict,” Boris Pistorius said.
Pistorius noted that he instructed to check the stocks of German tanks so that they were ready for possible dispatch. At the same time, he noted that Germany is not alone in refraining from the decision to supply tanks to Ukraine.
““I must say there is very clearly no unanimous opinion. The impression that has occasionally been made that there is a closed coalition and Germany stands in the way of this is wrong. There are many allies who say we share the opinion that I explained here today again, there are good reasons for the delivery and there are good reasons against it,” he said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on January 20, the eighth meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine began at the American Ramstein airbase.
On January 20, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called on the Allies to provide weapons to Ukraine due to a turning point in the war.
On January 11, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Poland had decided to transfer a company of Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of an international coalition. Poland expects Western countries to hand over up to 100 modern tanks to Ukraine.