Boris Pistorius said something in Munich that the chancellor had not said before: “Ukraine must win this war.” What victory would be, and what it means for Russia-annexed Crimea, is one of the many uncertainties currently. For the SPD Defense Minister, who has been in office for just a month, the main thing on the sidelines of the security conference is that at least the arms deliveries are organized in such a way that Ukraine can better exercise its right of self-defense.
Pistorius is particularly concerned about two construction sites. The Leopard 2 coalition continues to fight. At the end of January, Olaf Scholz announced the delivery of 14 Leopard 2 A6 main battle tanks to Ukraine and stated the aim of “quickly” forming two battalions with other allies. That would be a total of 62 Leopard 2 tanks. So far, only Portugal has pledged three Leopard 2A6s for the battalion, for which Germany has taken the lead.
The federal government is angry that other states have promised deliveries and are now not delivering. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, for example, struggles with critical public opinion in her country, and there are no signs of greater deliveries in Sweden and Finland either. The target was 31 pieces of the more modern type 2A6 – 14 pieces are missing.
A dedicated maintenance center is planned in Poland
Better, but at the same time fraught with another problem, is the deployment of the other Leopard 2 battalion. Poland is supplying 14 of the older model, the Leopard-2A4, Norway eight, Spain five and other countries may follow. But for the older Leopard 2 Type A4 there is a lack of spare parts and ammunition. Poland first demanded that Germany guarantee maintenance and supply of supplies, but the Bundeswehr has not used the tank for about 20 years. Finally, in Munich, Pistorius brokered negotiations between the German arms industry and the Polish side. Now Rheinmetall could produce the necessary parts in Poland.
A separate Leopard maintenance center is also planned in Poland. The announcement was made by the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, in Munich. Pistorius is visiting Rheinmetall at the Unterlüß site this Monday, the group is a key partner in resolving the issues. Finally, industry must also repair Leopard 1 main battle tanks, so more than 100 parts are delivered to Ukraine, Rheinmetall alone has 88 parts.
The Bundeswehr had bad experiences with another maintenance centre. It is in Michalovce, Slovakia, 35 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, but due to a customs dispute, rocket launchers and self-propelled howitzers have been stuck at the border since January and are in urgent need of maintenance.
Finally, several rocket launchers were sent on a diversion of over 2,500 kilometers via Poland to Germany for repairs and then transported back to Ukraine. Slovakia interprets European customs regulations in such a way that imports from Ukraine, a non-EU country, repairs in Slovakia, an EU country, and return to Ukraine require customs fees, since repair and parts new ones are processed. In the meantime, however, a solution without large customs payments is emerging. It’s not yet clear when the Leopard hub, which is also planned in Poland, could be ready, the details still need to be ironed out. The example of Slovakia shows that new problems often arise.
As the war can go on for a long time, the supply of ammunition becomes the main challenge in addition to the problems of tanks. “Now we have to do what we did during the pandemic,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, referring to contracts with pharmaceutical companies to secure the purchase of vaccines against the coronavirus. These guarantees can also help the defense industry to invest more quickly in new production lines and increase supply volumes. “I think now is the time to increase production of standardized products that Ukraine so desperately needs,” said von der Leyen. An example is artillery ammunition with a caliber of 155 millimeters.