After weeks of prevarication and increasingly fraught exchanges with its European allies, Germany has agreed to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, according to a report by Der Spiegel on Tuesday evening.
The report said that Berlin had agreed to supply Kyiv with at least one tank company comprising 14 tanks, as well as allowing its allies to transfer German-made tanks to Kyiv, German consent being a requirement for sale to a third country under the terms of its arms sales.
Germany will supply Ukraine with tanks from the Bundeswehr's own warehouses but may later transfer new Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev, the newspaper reported.
The news came following reports in The Wall Street Journal that Washington appeared to have dropped its opposition to supplying Ukraine with Abrams tanks, and the apparent readiness of France to supply Kyiv with tanks too.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had reportedly come under increasing pressure from his Green and Free Democrat government coalition partners to approve the tank delivery for Ukraine in recent days.
The decision was preceded by intensive discussions with Germany's U.S. allies, according to Der Spiegel, as Scholz was determined not to go ahead with the tank transfer unless Washington also supplied Kyiv with its own battle tanks.
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