Germany will authorize the delivery of tanks to Ukraine, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said Tuesday, in what would be a clear switch in Berlin’s cautious policy on military backing for Kyiv.
The government has agreed to sign off the delivery of used Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, Lambrecht told an international meeting of defense ministers at the US Ramstein airbase, according to a copy of her speech seen by AFP.
Forty countries are holding emergency talks at the airbase in southwestern Germany on bolstering the defense capabilities of Ukraine.
The meeting, held at the invitation of the United States, is “focused on doing things to generate additional capability and capacity for the Ukrainian forces”, according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
France is delivering Caesar cannons with a range of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and Britain has provided Starstreak anti-air missiles and tanks.
The Gepard tanks will not come from the German army but from stocks held by the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) arms group, government sources told AFP.
They were taken out of service 10 years ago and need to be technically upgraded, the sources said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has come under fire for refusing to directly send heavy weapons to Ukraine, despite announcing a “turning point” in German defense policy in response to the war.
Source: Agencies
