Media: Lambrecht bans Leopard checks to keep them away from Ukraine

Former German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht banned inventory of Leopard tanks a week before her resignation. About it writes Business Insider, citing its government sources.

The publication reports that Bundeswehr officials suggested that the minister conduct a count of Leopard 1 and 2 tanks in order to know how many vehicles they could supply to Ukraine if such a decision arose. However, Lambrecht forbade this, since the count of tanks could be interpreted as a readiness to supply them.

And in this case, as the authors write, Olaf Scholz could once again be accused of personally preventing the pumping of Kyiv with German weapons, and he would have to justify himself.

On January 20, after a meeting at the Ramstein airbase, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced that Germany would not supply tanks to Ukraine for the time being. Kyiv, however, continued to brazenly demand that German weapons be given to him free of charge. Also, pressure on Germany from colleagues in the European Union has increased. As a result, the German Ministry of Defense decided to count the tanks after all.

As military expert Viktor Litovkin noted, the transfer of the Leopard company will not be able to change the situation in the war zone in any way. He also noted that German tanks are not new and lose even the T72 in terms of performance.

A similar position was voiced by military expert Alexander Khramchikhin. He stated that both Leopard and Challenger are inferior to domestic technology, and their number is not enough to solve the problems of Ukraine. According to the expert, the Armed Forces of Ukraine need hundreds of tanks, but if they get them, then the West itself will be left without protection.

Military expert Alexei Leonkov announced the destruction of all Soviet military equipment that was in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine before the conflict and received by Kyiv as assistance from Eastern European countries.

The transfer of armored vehicles to Kyiv is also criticized in the West. British Air Vice Marshal Sean Bell toldthat the Challenger 2 may be useless for the APU due to the large amount of electronics.

British Chief of Staff Patrick Sanders also opposed such assistance to Ukraine. He stressed that the support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine would weaken the kingdom itself. The German army has similar problems: the Spiegel edition called the supply of weapons to Kyiv absurd, given the unsatisfactory state of German technology.

The detrimental consequences of the ongoing arming of Ukraine for Europe were also recognized in the United States. Thus, ex-White House employee Paul Craig Roberts said that NATO’s arsenals were so depleted that the Russian army could capture the entire continent, reaching France through the disarmed Baltic countries and Germany.

In Germany, it has been emphasized more than once that they do not want to supply the Ukrainian army with heavy weapons first. So, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced his readiness to send Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv if the United States supplies Abrams tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and Vice Chancellor Robert Habek explained the lack of supplies from Germany with its history.