In a major reversal following Chancellor Olaf Scholz only days ago voicing strong resistance, it appears Berlin has bowed to the mounting pressure among allies and approved new tank deliveries to Ukraine from Germany’s own stock, which Scholz had previously said was depleted.
The German Ministry of Defense announced Tuesday that delivery of Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine has been approved. As part of Scholz’s earlier rejection of sending heavy weapons systems, he had cited the potential for the West and Russia sliding into a WW3 and nuclear war scenario.
Axios reports that “The new shipment of the German-made Flakpanzer Gepard was announced by Germany’s Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht during a meeting with more than 30 defense officials from dozens of NATO and non-NATO countries at Ramstein Air Base.”
Among the officials there at Ramstein for the meeting which was focused on how to help Ukraine defeat the Russian invasion were US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – the latter fresh off his trip with Secretary of State Blinken to Kiev where they met with President Zelensky. Representing Ukraine at the Ramstein meeting was Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
The question of whether these anti-aircraft tanks will actually ever see use on the ground is a whole different story…
'Significant'
In that the war will be over before the first gunner has been trained on it. It takes a year+ and hundreds of simulator hours to be able to reliably operate it. The commander will have to learn even more.
Maintenance of that 50 year old chassis is also an issue. https://t.co/fhjq1YDUxJ— Moon of Alabama (@MoonofA) April 26, 2022
As for Scholz’s prior very clearly articulated warnings against sending items like tanks direct from Germany to the Ukrainians, here’s what he told Spiegel in an interview published only last Friday…
“We need to do everything to avoid a direct military confrontation between NATO and a heavily armed superpower such as Russia, a nuclear power,” the chancellor said at the time. “I will do everything to avoid an escalation that could lead to World War III – there can be no nuclear war.”
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht made the announcement at Ramstein…
Germany plans to offer artillery systems training to Ukrainian troops on German soil, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said during a US-hosted defense conference.
She also hailed Germany's decision to send anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine as progress:pic.twitter.com/rUjJaELFoN
— DW News (@dwnews) April 26, 2022
“That’s why it is all the more important that we consider each step very carefully and coordinate closely with one another,” Scholz had stressed.
He added: “To avoid an escalation towards NATO is a top priority for me,” and “That’s why I don’t focus on polls or let myself be irritated by shrill calls. The consequences of an error would be dramatic.” But given this fresh reversal it seems he did in fact, in his own prior words, let himself “get irritated by shrill calls”.
And certainly the risks he previously laid out haven’t suddenly or somehow become mitigated, given Monday’s alarming comments out of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said the risk of nuclear war remains a “serious, real” danger and that “we must not underestimate it.”
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But they are mostly peaceful tanks.
It is more obsolete bullshit to attempt to sit on both sides of the fence.
The Ukrainian elite will fight to the last gentile.
Apparently they keep getting got with Israelis, Turks, and others in their ranks. Rumor is Azov is of the same Israeli lineage as ISIS.
AP,
I know a Realtor with the last name Kazarian. I am not making that up.
Transnistria 2nd front?
2km from Romanian border.
Why does Russia bomb the tanks on the ground in Germany?
Russia DOESN’T bomb the tanks on the ground in Germany. Because Russia knows that doing so would be an attack on a NATO nation and would thereby provoke a direct NATO response. Because Russia actually plays by the rules.
I agree with everything you said …until the last sentence. There are no good players here…none.
It’s all relative, Brewer. We’re talking about mankind. So, no. There are no good guys.
But I’m very fond of Russia and Russians!!! And I would be happy to have a beer with Putin, whereas you couldn’t PAY me to share air with almost all of our “leaders”.
!!!
I worked with a guy that took a two week vacation each year in Russia. He talked about Russian women. No one ever saw him with an American woman at company “socials” etc. I guess he did ok in Russia.
Cheaper to have them delivered to the uke combat zone courtesy western tax donkeys.
Besides, if anyone gets to bomb Germany, that is the job of the U.S.A.F.
The best way to stop the Ukraine war is to nuclear West and Eastern Europe except for Hungary and Russia.
Oh no you don’t, there’s plenty enough nukes to go around for every vassal state, cornhole republic, shittystan, and the remainder that send their klown diplos to the U.N. wankfest.
No playing favorites for the shared failures of mankind.
Nuke Ukraine and it becomes a hot neutral zone to fend off NATO. Threaten this action and tell people to evacuate. I think all the military/industrial complex folks in various countries need a war to make money. People with no souls stuff.
These “tanks” from Germany will be conveniently delivered to Ukraine so that Russia doesn’t have to move them as far to the museum they belong in. NATO doesn’t have much to offer but some very outdated equipment.
Think I saw these particular weapons back in the sixties.
It is all arms dealers (no doubt Israeli again) and money laundering as if the propaganda alone isn’t enough to enrage Russia. This has nothing to do with increasing Ukrainian military capability.
The Ukraine War is a Racket
One group of special interests profiting massively on the war is the US military-industrial complex. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes recently told a meeting of shareholders that, “Everything that ‘s being shipped into Ukraine today, of course, is coming out of stockpiles, either at DOD or from our NATO allies, and that’s all great news. Eventually we’ll have to replenish it and we will see a benefit to the business.”…
By many accounts these shipments of weapons like the Javelin anti-tank missile (jointly manufactured by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin) are getting blown up as soon as they arrive in Ukraine. This doesn’t bother Raytheon at all.
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2022/april/25/the-ukraine-war-is-a-racket/
Yep.. not a coincidence that milley was there with the Blinken lackey. Convince Germany to send their outdated tanks in a faux show of support for propoganda purposes…then the US MIC reps promise newer tanks and taxpayer funded kickbacks from the arms dealers. Win/win for the corrupt NATO arms dealers and war mongers.
Well, kiss my butt, the beat goes on. When Lockheed was General Dynamics in Fort Worth , Texas, peeps I knew that worked there were always joyous when the good ole United States was bombing some other country. They pretty much had the attitude war with others is good, that’s how we drive new vehicles and live in better than average homes.
Meh, they’ll probably be destroyed as soon as they enter Ukraine.
captured and exploited.
That too. It seems to me there’s probably a lot of Ukrainians that are Russian sympathizers. As soon as they cross the border I can see someone picking up the phone with a discussion something like this:
Hey Vlad we got some Polish Junk that just crossed the border at these coords.
Vlad: give me 5 minutes.
2 minutes later they’re in flames within site of the Poles and Polish border.
these sorts of minor wars are where all the new equipment gets tested before the big war.
Like the Spanish Civil War.
Ah, ZeroHedge…the up and coming bastion of censorship.
Got banned for the last time yesterday.
The offense?: Using the word “fudgepacker” in a sentence.
Fuck ZeroHedge!
You shall now be known as “fudgepacker”! Use it with pride.
I seriously do not recall ever reading a comment over there. It always seemed like another Little Green Footballs crowd.
I thought the commentary at ZH was semi-worthy up until the pandemic hit. After that, their comment boards took a nosedive. But I never signed up to comment and never will.
It went to shit after ZH sold out and began to censor comments. Some of us went to a thread that was created by one that got booted. I’ve since met some of those guys and hold them in highest regard.
The great Tyler-Google purge changed it all. Now I can’t remember if it was in June 2019 or 2020.
I was banned there 5 times before I gave up when they caved to Google.
That’s weird. Never posted there, figgered language was no big deal. Agreed.
How many times now? I quit at twice.
Oh good, Germany going to war against Russia again, that should work out.
Oh come on german CUCKS………………send crews to man the tanks too !
You CUCKS love serving the democrat party……………die for barry soetero !
Barry is not even a 2nd Lt. in this action. It is being directed by MUCH higher authorized personnel.
Dizzakkkly.
The friend of my enemy is my enemy, especially when delivering heavy weaponry.
I walked around a small town in Germany last week when I was approached by multiple young people handing out flyers to get you to vote for their party.
Told the guy from the Green Party that I cannot take a party seriously that appeared to be committed to the peace movement a couple of decades ago and now supports delivery of heavy weaponry.
Told the other two guys that I will not vote any more until the system has come crashing down, but not to worry, if we survive we will witness it in our lifetime and it will be epic.
Olaf is champing on the bit to trade those obsolete arms to The Ukraine, under the auspices of Unkle Shmuel (natch) for a few extra millions of African and Muslim “refugees”. That will make Deutschland a better Murkin vassal, moar dieverse and vibrant.
They are literally trying to provoke Russia into an attack on NATO soil… Chip
Is Germany that stupid to step into this fray? Of course, we know that its Klaus and the WEF pushing this in order to kick off a bigger war. The likelihood of a large misstep increases the more Ukraine is treated as a proxy war, which, of course, it is… but add too much fuel and TPTB get what they want.
https://youtu.be/G8tFlGrgOlY?t=120
World political leaders need to be forced to watch this. Unfortunately neocons would probably masturbate to the movie.