Germany will send around 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine before the end of March.
After inspecting a number of the armoured vehicles the German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said: «We are now adapting to this changed situation by delivering Marder tanks. And I believe that this is the right approach: not to rule anything out, but always to weigh up what I want to achieve, what are the challenges — and always to keep an eye on coordination with international partners, with our allies.»
The move represents a major step up in Berlin’s military support for Kyiv, although it still falls short of the frontline battle tanks that Ukraine has been asking for.
However, Poland said it will provide such tanks in the form of the Leopard 2, which is made in Germany.
Any transfer of armaments from German production to third parties must be approved by Berlin.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda confirmed Warsaw’s planned delivery of tanks after a meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Lviv.
Duda has underlined that Poland will strive to build an international coalition of countries in order to contribute batches of tanks for Ukraine.
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