European efforts to arm Ukraine with western tanks have edged forward after Finland pledged to supply combat vehicles to the war-torn country and Poland said 14 of its Leopard 2A4s would cross the border “in a few days”.
But Berlin said countries that had previously promised to send Ukraine some of the more advanced German-made tanks were continuing to hesitate.
Spain said it planned to send six older 2A4 tanks to Kyiv, but in an illustration of the obstacles involved in getting Ukraine the military equipment it needs, Madrid confirmed they would have to undergo extensive repairs before they can be delivered.
Last year, Spain’s defence minister said the country’s German-made Leopards, which had been mothballed in a warehouse since 2012, were in an “absolutely deplorable” state. They had been drained of oil and were missing key parts, including their batteries.
During a visit to Kyiv on Thursday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said Madrid would “send six leopards and over the next few weeks we will see if we can scale up from 6 to 10”.
Other countries are moving ahead more quickly. In an interview with the Financial Times, the head of Poland’s national security bureau said the country would be sending 14 Leopard tanks into Ukraine “in a few days”, alongside four Canadian tanks that were transported to Poland this month.
“It’s possible that they will leave the [Polish] border at the end of the week,” said Jacek Siewiera.
Last month, chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany would send 14 Leopard 2A6s to bolster Kyiv’s war effort and would allow other countries with stocks of the German-made tanks to export them to Ukraine.
Berlin said the plan was to create two tank battalions of Leopard 2s, which equates to about 62 tanks. One, formed by Germany, would be made up of the more advanced Leopard 2A6s, and one, formed by Poland, would consist of older Leopard 2AFs.
But progress has been painfully slow. At last week’s Munich Security Conference, Scholz admonished Germany’s allies for failing to live up to their pledges to deliver tanks to Ukraine having spent months urging Berlin to act.
However, there are now signs that European countries are beginning to pick up the pace.
On Thursday, the Finnish defence ministry announced it would be sending Ukraine three Leopard 2 tanks suitable for mine clearing as well as training soldiers to use them, part of a new package of military aid worth €160mn.
There had been hopes in Berlin that Helsinki might make a larger contribution — it has about 200 Leopard 2 tanks in total.
But Finnish president Sauli Niinistö said recently that Finland’s contribution would be relatively small in view of its long — 1,340km — border with Russia and the fact that it was the only country with Leopards that was not a Nato member.
Sweden’s defence minister Pål Jonson said Stockholm was also open to sending some of its Leopards to Ukraine. “We are in close dialogue above all with Germany about it,” he told the TT news agency.
But the pledges so far have been met with a degree of disappointment in Berlin. Other than Germany, Portugal is the only European country to have agreed to send the advanced Leopard 2A6s, with a commitment to supply three of the tanks.
Spain has 239 Leopard 2A6s but has no plans to give any of them to Ukraine, saying it needed them for its own defence.
Poland has had more success with its joint battalion of 2AFs. Spain is supplying six, Norway eight and Canada four to add to the 14 Warsaw is providing.
But plans to provide Leopard 2A4s have been complicated by the dire shortage of spare parts and ammunition for the older tank. It has not been in service with the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, for at least 20 years and German arms manufacturers no longer support the model.
Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, expressed frustration at the lack of donations from other countries with stocks of newer Leopards. “Obviously there are some nations who just preferred to hide behind Germany,” he said at an event at the Munich Security Conference at the weekend. “It’s easy to say we would if you let us, and when we let them, they didn’t.”
