A Polish Leopard 2PL tank burns during the Defender Europe 2022 military exercise by NATO troops, including French, American and Polish troops, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the Bemowo Piskie training ground, near Orzysz, Poland, May 24, 2022.
Kacper Pempel | Reuters
The event of the war in Ukraine this week focused on an agreement between Germany and the US, which ultimately decided to send dozens of their very own battle tanks to the war-torn country.
There was enjoyment of Kiev, with officials saying it could change the rules of the game in the conflict, and anger in Moscow at officials there, who called NATO’s latest donation “extremely dangerous.”
For Ukraine, the offer of modern Western battle tanks was long awaited; he had been asking for Leopard 2 tanks from Germany for months and asking Berlin for permission to re-export them from other allies.
Widely available and currently utilized by a handful of European armed forces, Leopard 2s have been the steadfast soldiers of the German Army since their entry into service in 1979 – with various upgrades since their inception (the latest version being the Leopard 2A7A1) – and have been utilized by Western nations in conflicts from Kosovo to Afghanistan and Syria.
On Wednesday, Germany offered Ukraine 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks and announced that it might allow allies to export their very own German tanks to Ukraine.
![Germany's decision to send tanks to Ukraine leads into uncharted territory, says Teneo](https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107184267-16747169251674716922-27908920482-1080pnbcnews.jpg?v=1674722515&w=750&h=422&vtcrop=y)
Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Norway and Finland are amongst the other countries which have signaled that they’re willing or willing to send tanks to Kiev. The UK has already announced that it can send 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks, while the US has announced that it can send 31 M1 Abrams tanks.
Yuri Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, explained to CNBC why Western tanks are a terrific fit for Ukraine, saying it can result in greater efficiency for the country’s fighters on the battlefield.
“They’ve higher armor, they’ve an extended firing range, they’re more maneuverable. There are such a lot of benefits. They can wage war at night because they’re equipped with night vision systems to focus on and discover enemies. So it is very obvious that we’ll just be simpler and we’ll have the option to attain the same results with less casualties for our army,” he said.
Leopard 2s are seen as a selected boon for Ukraine as they’re relatively easy to take care of (especially in comparison with the advanced Abrams tank). They run on available diesel fuel, and above all, many of Ukraine’s European neighbors have them and are able to ship them to Kiev.
Jon Hawkes, writer of the blog Tanknology, noted that one of the biggest attractions of the Leopard 2 tanks was the theoretically large number of potential donors, noting on Twitter that “the advantage of the Leopard 2 is, conceptually, everyone gives a modest number and Ukraine finally ends up with lots.”
Ukraine is actually now focused on the exact number of tanks it can expect from its Western allies. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday evening that “the key thing now could be speed and size. The speed of training our army, the speed of delivering tanks to Ukraine and the volume of tank support.”
A Leopard 2 tank seen during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to NATO’s latest “VJTF 2019” frontline in Munster, Germany, May 20, 2019.
Fabian Bimmer | Reuters
Defense Ministry adviser Sak told CNBC that Kyiv needs about 300 to 400 tanks to penetrate Russian defenses, especially against hotspots corresponding to eastern Ukraine and ahead of anticipated Russian spring offensives.
“In case you take a look at the current situation, [the] The Russians have withdrawn and entrenched deep, and we’re capable of break through these defensive lines. But to do it effectively, we want these armored vehicles like the primary battlefield tanks and armored vehicles like the Bradley,” he said, referring to a different military vehicle sent by the US.
“If we get enough of them, they shall be a game changer, similar to HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) was.”
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He believed the first tank deliveries could be made in March, but said that training troops in the use of Western tanks had to begin now.
“Now that the decision has been made to produce Ukraine with tanks, it is very easy to get complacent and say to yourself, if you happen to’re a Western leader, ‘okay, so we have done our job, now we can calm down.’ No. Now the work begins, because the training of tank crews must start now,” he said.