Berlin The Ukrainian Ambassador Oleksiy Makejev reported on Thursday from the Putlos military training area in Schleswig-Holstein, where Ukrainian soldiers are being trained on the Gepard anti-aircraft tank. Soon the tanks would protect Ukrainian cities from Russian attacks, the diplomat tweeted.
What is striking: The tank, which can be seen in the tweet in the background with the rotating radar, is wearing a sand-colored camouflage – as is common in desert states like Qatar. This could be an indication that the 15 Gepard tanks that Germany once delivered to the emirate to protect the 2022 World Cup are back in Germany to be passed on to Ukraine.
According to a defense politician, the vehicles have now been bought back. The Federal Ministry of Defense did not want to confirm this.
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When asked about the pictures from Putlos, a spokesman explained that the Bundeswehr is providing the training ground, but the material is being provided by industry. The armaments company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), which once manufactured the cheetah, could not initially be reached for a statement.
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) pointed out several times that the anti-aircraft tank had proven itself very well in Ukraine. “If we could get more from partners here, that would definitely help the Ukrainians,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung earlier this year.
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After that, apparently, successful negotiations were held with the initially hesitant Qataris. Because after the NATO summit in Vilnius, the number of Cheetah tanks still to be delivered increased from three to 18 on the list of military support services to Ukraine, which the federal government is constantly updating. That is exactly the number that had once been delivered to Qatar.
And of the 18, several have probably already arrived in Ukraine. According to the list, only twelve cheetahs are currently due for delivery. A total of 40 anti-aircraft tanks from industrial stocks have now been handed over to the country suffering from Russia’s war of aggression.
In order to secure the supply of ammunition, the federal government had placed an order with the armaments company Rheinmetall in February for the delivery of 300,000 of the 35-millimeter cartridges.
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