German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius denied on Friday that Berlin had unilaterally blocked the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, but said the government was ready to act quickly on the issue if there was a consensus among allies, Reuters reported. At the same time, he notes that Germany will need the consent of its allies to give the green light to the supply of German-made tanks to Ukraine, which will dash Ukraine’s hopes for a quick transfer.

Speaking to reporters at a meeting of NATO and defense leaders at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Pistorius denied that Berlin was behind the block on sending tanks.

“There are good reasons for supplies and there are good reasons against them, and given the whole situation of a war that has been going on for almost a year now, you have to weigh the pros and cons very carefully,” he said, without elaborating on the reasons.

The pressure on Berlin to supply Kiev with Lopard tanks has intensified, as Ukrainians see them as a key front against Russia.

Berlin says it needs the agreement of all allies to give the green light to the Leopard 2 tanks

Defense ministers from NATO and other nations met in Germany amid warnings that Russia will launch a new offensive to seize parts of eastern and southern Ukraine it says it has annexed but does not fully control.

The United States and Finland announced new military aid packages ahead of a meeting at Ramstein Air Base, where the focus was on Germany agreeing to allow European countries that use Leopard 2 tanks to transfer them to Ukraine.

German Defense Minister Pistorius said he could not say when a decision would be made on the tanks, but that Germany was ready to act quickly if there was a consensus among allies.

“It is necessary to weigh all the pros and cons very carefully,” Pistorius said, adding that the issue was discussed on Friday, but no decision was made.

Pistorius did not say which allies, if any, were opposed to supplying the tanks, nor did he specify what he saw as the pros and cons of such a policy.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government was apparently reluctant to allow the export of tanks for fear of provoking Russia. Some Western officials have also expressed concern that Russia could seize advanced Western weapons and steal their technology.

The Kremlin said that supplying Ukraine with tanks will not help, and the West will regret its “delusion” that Kyiv can win on the battlefield.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, speaking at the beginning of the meeting in Ramstein, thanked the allies for their support, but noted that more weapons are needed and faster.

“We must speed up. Time must become our weapon. The Kremlin must lose,” said Zelensky, who previously suggested that Germany was preventing other countries from sending their tanks.

Appeal of the EU and NATO on weapons

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters that Ukraine’s sponsors should focus not only on sending new weapons, but also on providing ammunition for older systems and helping maintain them.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the meeting that Russia was regrouping, recruiting and trying to rearm.

“This is not the time to slow down. This is the time to dig deeper. The Ukrainian people are looking at us,” he said, without specifically mentioning the tanks.

A German government source said Berlin would approve the transfer of Leopard tanks if the United States agreed to send Abrams tanks, which were not included in Thursday’s US announcement of new military aid. Berlin said that these two problems are not related.

• The condition of Germany allowed to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine

The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, said earlier that some European countries were ready to send heavy tanks and he hoped that a decision would be made.

Lithuania, which fears for its own future if Russia defeats Ukraine, said several countries would announce sending Leopard tanks to the meeting.

“Some of the countries will definitely send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, that’s for sure,” Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas told Reuters on Thursday.

Finland has pledged to provide Ukraine with more than 400 million euros worth of additional defense equipment and said it could add Leopard tanks if there is a deal with allies.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he was “moderately pessimistic” that Berlin would give the green light. His government suggested that Poland could go ahead regardless of whether Germany gave the green light.

The German government said on Friday that it has no information about an official request to Germany from any country for permission to export German Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

Kyiv and Moscow in the war mainly relied on Soviet T-72 tanks, which were long considered obsolete; hundreds were killed in what Russian President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation” to protect Russia and Russian-speakers.

Ukraine and its allies say that Russia poses no threat and is only trying to seize territory.

The U.S. aid announced Thursday was valued at $2.5 billion and includes 59 Bradley fighting vehicles and 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers, totaling more than $27.4 billion in U.S. security assistance, but excluding Abrams tanks.

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