In the near future, the United States will announce a new package of assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but the Abrams did not fit into the package.
Photo: REUTERS
German and US media reported that German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has agreed to supply Ukraine with German Leopard 2 tanks, but on one completely insignificant condition: Berlin will be ready to do so the day after US Abrams tanks arrive in Kyiv from Washington. . Such is the “after you” in world politics.
But the Biden administration is not ready for this now. In the near future, the United States will announce a new package of assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but the Abrams did not fit into the package. There are many excuses: here is the weight of the tank, which the Nezalezhnaya bridges cannot withstand, and the complexity of maintenance, and the lack of a repair base with spare parts, but through all these arguments that take place and makes sense , you can clearly feel the smell of doubt and unwillingness to see in the public space how the products of the vaunted American military-industrial complex are on the battlefield. Similarly, after the delivery of the Abrams, the French are also ready to think about the delivery of their Leclerc tanks.
But in this situation, it is much more interesting what will happen to those “leopards” that Poland has already expressed its readiness to give to Ukraine. These are also German tanks sold to Warsaw by Berlin. But according to the norms of international law in the part that concerns arms, when selling/supplying imported arms to a third country, if this is stipulated in the first contract (and it usually is), especially if you are participating in a conflict armed, you must ask the provider country for permission. In this case, Germany. And now the main question is whether Scholz will accept the supply of leopards from Warsaw to Kyiv or whether he will return to the rule “only after you” here.
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has already expressed outrage over these rules, calling them madness.
– There are rules in the manufacture and export of weapons. If you receive weapons, you sign a contract that says: for the further transfer of weapons, you must obtain permission from the person who sold them to you. This is a general rule, it is included in almost all contracts, – Pavlo told the residents of the community on the air of the Espreso TV channel. – We faced such a problem when I was working with our German friends when Switzerland made and provided Germany with ammunition for the Cheetahs, which we now need a lot to fight against Russian drones.
And he could not contain his irritation with these rules, which caused real heartburn.
– In Switzerland, there is a principle of neutrality. They see it in a completely different way than we do, – Pavlo explained the “Ukrainian understanding” of the term “neutrality”. – I think it is crazy from the point of view of international and humanitarian law, to be neutral in conflicts like the ones we have with Russia. This is slowly getting into the minds of many in Switzerland, but not quite.
Who would have told this fool that Switzerland is at the bottom of only one place his opinion on its neutrality? And that quietly, of course, Switzerland also adheres to it not so strictly (for example, some nuances of the country’s cooperation with the Nazis in World War II testify to this), but tries to do without undue publicity. And not in such cases, when several countries are involved in the situation at once.
By the way, Klimkin should not be offended, and it is not for Ukraine to break or change the rules here, since the country is involved in so many smuggling and illegal arms and weapons trades that no arms “barons” could dream of such. scale.
