Originally Posted by
NutLoose
It has been the defence minister - Christine Lambrecht - who has blocked this, plus other armoured vehicles, plus artillery. Her argument is that these units are pledged to NATO and cannot therefore be "removed" . This sounds plausible, but ignores the fact that Germany has been failing to meet many NATO obligations for years now.
Lambrecht is on the left of the SPD and very evidently doesn't want to supply weapons. She has , for example, said that the Ukranians had specifically asked for details of weapons transfer to be kept secret. The Ukranian ambassador has flat out denied that, saying that they are happy for news, quantities of weapons supply to be made public, but not timings and routings. The widely-believed implication is that she fears details of Germany's weak performance would humiliate her. She made a statement the other day that Germany was the biggest supplier of arms to Ukraine: it then turned out that her criterion was weight ! This was based on a few old BMP's from old stock somewhere. She was also the one responsible for Germany's initial effort which was a shipment of 5 000 helmets as her intention was only to deliver "defensive " goods.
Scholz has already stripped her of some major responsibilities and she is not expected to last long.
Before the election she had announced she was going to resign and go back to her "dream-job" of being a lawyer, but changed her mind when offered the defence Ministry.