Over the weekend, other NATO members’ pressure on Berlin continued to mount while bipartisan American lawmakers have issued demands that Washington lead by example and send its own heavy tanks to Ukraine. The lawmakers highlighted the influence such a move could have in convincing other allies to send heavy tanks to Kiev "in lock step" with the American government.
After a meeting of over 50 defense chiefs last Friday, Germany remained steadfast in withholding its required approval to third nations – such as Poland – for the re-export of German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks to Kiev.
UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly implored Germany to give in and provide Kiev with the Leopard tanks on Sunday. London recently confirmed they would be sending Ukraine 14 of their Challenger 2 tanks. Concurrently, the Baltic states issued a joint call for Berlin to provide the tanks to Ukraine immediately, adding the Germans have a "special responsibility" to do so as the "leading European power."
For the moment, Germany’s position is that they will not provide their own Leopards or green light third countries’ re-export unless the US provides similar tanks of its own. However, in an interview on Sunday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki signaled that Warsaw may go around Berlin’s back with a "smaller coalition" of countries and allies willing to provide Kiev with the heavy tanks, saying "[w]e will not passively watch Ukraine bleed to death."
The Polish leader also took aim at German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. "Since Minister Pistorius denies that Germany is blocking the supply of tanks to Ukraine, I would like to hear a clear declaration that Berlin supports sending them," Morawiecki told the Polish Press Agency.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also says that Berlin would not "stand in the way" if Poland went ahead and exported the Leopard tanks to Kiev. “For the moment the question has not been asked, but if we were asked we would not stand in the way," she said during an interview with France’s LCI TV.
During a weekend summit in Paris between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the German leader reiterated his position that all weapons transfers would have to be coordinated with allies including Washington. Scholz has previously defended his reluctance regarding the tank transfers, saying he aims to prevent a direct clash between NATO and Russia that such an escalation in military aid could entail. Pistorius indicated he expects a decision soon, but it will not be made in haste.
At the Paris summit, Macron said France has not "ruled out" providing Ukraine with its Leclerc tanks. Although, he similarly warned it must not escalate the situation, must take into account the time to train Ukrainians effectively, and must not jeopardize France’s security.
During an appearance on ABC’s "This Week" on Sunday, Michael McCaul, the ultra-hawkish GOP chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, demanded Washington transfer M1 Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine immediately. He argued "just one" tank would be enough for Germany to send its Leopards and green light all third countries’ transfers as well. “Even saying that we’re going to put Abrams tanks in would be enough,” McCaul said.
Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) made a similar call, saying “If it requires our sending some Abrams tanks to unlock getting the Leopard tanks from Germany, from Poland, from other allies I would support that." He added, "”I respect that our military leaders think the Abrams is too sophisticated, too expensive a platform to be as useful as the Leopards, but we need to continue to work with our close allies and move forward in lock step.”
Connor Freeman is the assistant editor and a writer at the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on the Conflicts of Interest podcast. His writing has been featured in media outlets such as Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, and the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. He has also appeared on Liberty Weekly, Around the Empire, and Parallax Views. You can follow him on Twitter @FreemansMind96.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki signaled that Warsaw may go around Berlin’s back with a “smaller coalition” — this kind of multi-century territiorial disputes are exactly what America was warned against by Washington in his farewell address. Let Europe do Europe. We are being made the Fool in Chief. And we think we are running things.
Washington could not know the nation would be come a very ruthless, brutal hegemon wanting to rule the world.
Usually ignored or forgotten is the fact that a majority of German citizens polled don’t want this level of escalation. The question is not what’s wrong with Germany, it should be what’s wrong with the 30 nations out of 196 that are arming Ukraine.
The 30 nations are all lackey`s of the Americans , not one of them has the guts to say NO why because the Americans will take their revenge on any country that fails to comply.
To add , letting the Americans take control of the worlds finances was a big mistake one they are all now regretting but won`t say so .
It too stands for ” you can’t trust the USA”
De facto Germany is not an ally anymore, after NATO members sabotaged the pipelines. That was a declaration of war on Germany. Since Swedish naval ships were in the vicinity shortly before the explosion and the Swedes refused to provide results of their investigation to Germany, I suspect that the de facto NATO member Sweden was involved in the sabotage.
In addition the German constitution forbids to supply weapons to nations involved in military conflicts. NATO is supposed to be defensive but so far it has only been used in illegal wars of aggression, including the bombing of Serbia.
“Nations Push to Break German Stalemate Over Sending Tanks to Ukraine Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers are demanding Washington send its own Abrams tanks”
Sure 3 gallons per mile of jet fuel that’s what Ukraine needs. But who in Ukraine cares Joey Biden will have American taxpayers pay for the fuel.
Joey will spend any amount of American money to hide Hunter Biden’s crimes in Ukraine.
Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers are demanding Washington send its own Abrams tanks to ukraine
yes send them over there and hand them over to some guys that have no clue how they work. so also send some US tank operators over there to operate them. then see how fast things escalate.
If one US soldier , tank driver ect ect is caught by the Russians you have WW3 .
As i have said in another post Putin needs to hit all ports of entry into Ukraine destroy all air ports / military bases , any transport carrying weapons are a legitimate target and should be destroyed .
They are all, especially UK imploring Germany to AGAIN for the third time step on that sane rake and lead the attack on Russia.
Go, Germany go! Your masters are imploringvyou to step up and after Ukraine and Poland — be ready to commit yet anotger suicide. Deindustrialize
yourself, sacrifie for the Anglo workd one more time.
Happy days are here again!
Poland will be singing a different tune when all its Leopard tanks have been lost in Ukraine, and the Russian Army arrives on the Polish border — and arrives furious.
“At the Paris summit, Macron said France has not “ruled out” providing Ukraine with its Leclerc tanks. Although, he similarly warned it must not escalate the situation, must take into account the time to train Ukrainians effectively, and must not jeopardize France’s security.”
Does Ukraine not see a pattern here? You won’t be allowed to win because other countries don’t want to risk their own necks. Maybe some 12 year old child could explain it to you since it is that f*cking obvious.
Well there’s also the scenario where the Russians get their hands on the advanced tanks …. Perhaps best would be self-destruct features built in if captured.
Politicians have a hard time to give a coherent answer defending illogical policies, like selling weapons to prevent the war from escalating? That is like drive and use the tank but don’t fire the gun it could escalate the war?
What a liar. He says this to show his loyalty to the media and the donors. Abrams tanks are highly complex and prone to break down, they can’t be operated by Ukrainians. And they won’t help Ukraine occupy western Donbass, which they are now losing.
Leopard tanks are good tanks but made for German roads and cities. Not for the plains. They are too heavy and would get stuck. And Ukrainians don’t know how to operate those either.
Why all this talk about tanks?
1. As Alex Mercouris points out on YouTube, it’s a way to sever the Germans from the Russians, prevent any rapprochement between them in the future. Just like Biden blowing up Nord Stream 2, as he said he would. “There will be no Nord Stream 2.” “We have the means to do it.” That way there could be no deal where Germany would lift sanctions and get the gas flowing again.
2. They have nothing else. Russia fires 20,000 rounds of artillery per day, Ukraine is down to 1,200. Russia fires nineteen times as much artillery. What difference do a few tanks make then? None, they’ll burn like the rest. In the summer Biden claimed they could reach parity with the Russians in terms of artillery, but Russia has the best artillery in the world. The U.S. arms manufacturers refuse to produce ordinary artillery and will only make guided artillery, extremely expensive for the Pentagon to buy. Russians have guided artillery AND ordinary artillery. Leftist Western media have ridiculed Russia for using “old!” unguided artillery shells, which work just fine and are pounding the Ukrainians to bits. It is estimated that perhaps half of Ukraine’s fighting forces are in Bakhmut, and in all these times they have failed to break out. Forces sent to attack Russian positions from outside have also failed. Because Russia is far superior with its artillery. Ukraine lost the heavily fortified Soledar, and THREE attempts to reoccupy it have failed. (All three ordered by Zelensky against the wishes of the military.) So yeah, let’s hope the most modern tanks can come in and change things. Because NATO has given up on matching Russian artillery.
“”The U.S. arms manufacturers refuse to produce ordinary artillery and will only make guided artillery, extremely expensive for the Pentagon to buy.””
and the pentagon snaps it all up as soon as it is produced.
“get out the checkbook honey!”, the pentagon exclaimed.
“duh, which way did he go…”, replied the unthinking taxpayer.
Why all this talk about tanks?
Because Zelensky WANTS! He WANTS! he WANTS!
GIMME NOW!!!
Poland has been enthusiastic about escalating this war. I sometimes wonder if Germany wants to keep its tanks to defend itself from its warlike neighbor to the east.
Baerbock makes Sarah Palin look good. What a POS she is. next to Ursula, and Habeck and the rest of the government of scoundrels and traitors.
” Warsaw may go around Berlin’s back with a “smaller coalition” of countries and allies willing to provide Kiev with the heavy tanks, saying “[w]e will not passively watch Ukraine bleed to death.”
The Polish PM must have meant” we will ACTIVELY watch Ukraine bleed to death. ”
That is true that is what US/NATO really does.
The Polish PM “will not passively watch Ukraine bleed to death.” No, he wants to be actively involved in it. And the Brits are sending 14 tanks but the Germans won’t send any unless the Americans do, but the American tanks are too sophisticated to be useful, and in any case most of this tank parade of nations would just be blown up at the train station anyway. These people are giving farce a bad name.
Parachute the MF into eastern Ukraine.
With the survival kit from Dr. Strangelove.
A fella could have himself a nice time in Vegas with all that.
true story: Slim Pickens originally said Dallas but it was overdubbed with Vegas after the Kennedy assassination.
Sophisticated tanks where the Nazis down fall in WW2 , the Russian T32 tank beat the shit out of them.
T-34.
Well, if German investigation concludes that Ukraine, with Polish assistance, sabotaged the Nordstream pipeline (as another of today’s stories on this site indicate is likely) then Germany should tell both countries to piss off, and stop all support for either of them (Poland has been making their “donations” to Ukraine contingent on the US and Germany replacing their “donated” junk with new, updated equipment). If Poland and Ukraine think it’s ok to negatively impact their supporter’s economy then they are no one’s ally and don’t deserve a single additional euro. much less “heavy tanks”.
Friends don’t blow up friend’s stuff. Sounds kind of obvious when you type it out.
Nations? Mostly Poland and the Baltics. But it’s the Poles, who should never have been part of the EU or NATO, as they can only express their hate for Russia at every turn.
Part of the deal to end the Cold War was that Poland would not become part of NATO. Just like Ukraine.
Any news story that makes this little sense is propaganda. Nobody wants to give Ukraine enough tanks to counter attack. Tanks are aggressive weapons, they could be driven to attack targets, artillery positions or airfields inside Russia. And that puts WW3 solely in control of the Ukranians, who have been nice enough to make it clear they would kill the world in order to win this war. NATO tanks roll into Russia, that’s it, no matter who is driving. We’re all dead.
All this blithering is to cover why the western states aren’t willing to go further, and to prevent making it clear that we will drop feed Ukraine just enough weapons to result in millions of dead Ukranians and an economically weakened Russia that we can starve into collapse or chaos with sanctions. It’s about selling gas to Europe in dollars, and doing whatever is necessary to do that just short of directly starting a nuclear war.
But, my God, this shit is getting dangerous.
If we fuck up and Ukraine gains the ability to invade Russia to stop the artillery…
It takes months to train a tank crew to just minimal standards, and years to train crews ready to go to war. Yet we’re going to send some of the world’s most powerful and advanced tanks to the Ukraine and hand them over to crews who will have very little training, and who will certainly lack the technical knowledge to properly employ the tanks’ combat systems effectively. The crews who receive Leo 2’s and Challengers and possibly M1’s will be well protected- of that I have no doubt- but those tanks will in all likelihood be immediately designated as high priority targets and will, in short order, become the final resting place of those enthusiastic but woefully under-trained tankers.