Berlin's Decision to Send Leopard 2s to Ukraine 'Historically Wrong', German MP Says

On Wednesday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius made it clear that Ukraine will get the Leopard 2 tanks not earlier than in three-four months.

German lawmaker Sevim Dagdelen has lashed out at Berlin over its move to provide Kiev with the country's Leopard 2 main battle tanks.

"We are now in a very bad situation, because I think it’s a historic wrong [sic] decision, for it’s against the majority of the population in Germany. According to new polls, the majority in Germany is against sending battle tanks to Ukraine. The majority is in favor for more diplomacy, for a negotiated peace in Ukraine," Dagdelen, who is member of the Left party, told a German news outlet on Thursday.

She argued that sending the German tanks to Ukraine is “[…] in the interest of the United States military-industrial complex, because their thesis, if they get lost, then they can supply their own tanks” to Ukraine.

“It’s the interest of an elite, of neocons in the United States, who are having the position that Europe is like Latin America for the United States in the '70s, and a continent where you can do what you please. And that's really a problem,” the German lawmaker noted.

Dagdelen added that she was “very concerned” that “this is not the last decision” taken by Berlin because sending the Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev is “not a game changer.”

“In the long term or in the medium term, they [the Leopard 2s] will not change anything on the ground in Ukraine, because Russia will react,” she stressed, calling for a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian conflict to avoid more “senseless killings.”

The remarks followed German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit telling reporters that Berlin would deliver 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

“On Wednesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced in the cabinet that Germany would further increase its military support for Ukraine. He said that the federal government had decided to provide the Ukrainian armed forces with Leopard 2 main battle tanks,” Hebestreit pointed out.

Later on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden signaled Washington’s readiness to send 31 M1 Abrams to Kiev, adding that the decision was endorsed by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and that the move comes as Kiev prepares to launch a counteroffensive against Russian forces later this year. Russia has been conducting its special military operation in Ukraine since February 24, 2022.

The Russian Embassy in Germany slammed Berlin’s move to send the Leopard 2s to Ukraine as an “extremely dangerous decision”, which shifts the Ukrainian conflict to a new level of confrontation.

“Berlin’s choice […] means the final rejection of Germany’s historical responsibility to the Russian people,” the embassy underlined, adding that Germany and its close allies are not interested in a diplomatic resolution of the Ukrainian crisis and want to escalate tensions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in turn said that the decision to supply the Leopard 2s and the Abrams to Kiev indicates the West’s “growing direct involvement” in the Ukrainian conflict.

Russia has repeatedly warned the US and its allied against sending military aid to Kiev, something that Moscow says adds to prolonging the Ukrainian conflict.