Germany to audit the Leopard tank reserves

Germany will conduct the audit of reserves of the Leopard main battle tanks.

This was ordered by the country’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

It is stated that an audit of the reserves of Leopard tanks will help quickly transfer them to Ukraine if such a decision is finally approved.

The defence minister said Germany was “ready to act quickly” if the Allies reached a consensus on supplying tanks to Ukraine.

“There is no consensus on the delivery of Leopard tanks,” Pistorius told reporters on the sidelines of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

He countered the thesis that Germany allegedly “prevents the coalition” of countries that advocate the provision of tanks to Ukraine.

“There are good reasons to provide and there are good reasons against. And given the general situation of the war, which has been going on for almost a year, you need to weigh all the pros and cons very carefully, and this assessment is shared by many allies,” the German minister added.

He also noted that the issue of export permits during the meeting on January 20 was not discussed.

It should be reminded that Poland has long been expecting that Berlin would still approve the provision of Polish tanks of German production to Ukraine.

But on January 19, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that if Warsaw did not receive a green light from Germany, it would “do the right thing on its own”.

Earlier, the German government denied the information that Berlin was ready to transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine when the United States provided Abrams tanks. The government assured that there was no such connection or requirement.

Currently, a number of countries have formed an international coalition and are ready to provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks from their reserves. However, this requires permission from Germany as a producing country.