Germany has offered Poland 20 older Leopard tanks for more than 200 tanks of Soviet design.
(Photo: imago images / Sven Eckelkamp)
Berlin In politics, you have to think things through from the end, Angela Merkel has often said. Her successor Olaf Scholz clearly does not follow this principle. Otherwise he would not have announced that Germany would support Ukraine with weapons in the exchange of rings.
The eastern NATO allies, above all Poland, delivered tanks and other war equipment to the country invaded by Russia in large numbers without hesitation. But the promised replacement from Germany will be a long time coming – or not at all. Scholz has long had to put up with the accusation of “breach of word” from Warsaw.
The exchange of rings testifies to the cowardice, ruthlessness and naivety of German politics.
Cowardice, because it turns out to be more and more what, from Berlin’s point of view, it was from the start: an attempt to buy time. Instead of approving export applications for the Leopard or Marder tanks on the dump, the federal government let the eastern allies go ahead.
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The argument that the Ukrainians are more familiar with weapons from the former Warsaw Pact states cannot be dismissed out of hand. But there was always a subliminal hope in Berlin that the war would not last so long that people would still have to take action themselves.
Germany has false expectations of its eastern NATO allies
Ruthlessness, because the federal government is asking its eastern NATO allies to do exactly what it doesn’t want to expect of its own country: to expose itself militarily to the extent that the ability to defend the country and the alliance suffers as a result. To offer the Poles 20 older Leopards as a replacement for more than 200 battle tanks delivered can only be seen as a mockery in Warsaw.
Which brings us to the third point. Should the Russian army win in Ukraine, the countries on NATO’s eastern flank would also be under acute threat. The belief that these states can be fobbed off with military equipment that we have at the junkyard is at least naïve. If Scholz engages in barter transactions in a publicity-effective manner, one can expect that he will at least reassure himself with the Bundeswehr and industry as to what can be delivered as a replacement and within what period of time.
The fact that Poland is now buying tanks from the USA shows the widespread feeling in the East that in the NATO alliance you can really only really rely on the Americans. Scholz, but also Western allies like France, should not let this impression sit on them. Otherwise the exchange of rings will quickly become a non-starter in Ukraine politics.
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