Huffing and puffing and occasionally fluffing his words during months of tense diplomatic negotiations, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has finally agreed to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The numbers involved are not impressive; as things stand, only 14 German tanks will get a fresh lick of paint with Ukrainian military markings. Still, his decision has removed a significant obstacle to Ukraine’s rearmament. Finland, Poland, Portugal and the Netherlands have already announced that they will transfer some of their Leopards and Norway and Spain are not far behind.
The Leopard tank contingent could, therefore, end up being quite substantial, providing Ukraine with the ability to flush out Russian troops from their dugouts, thereby injecting much-needed mobility into a war of attrition that currently allows Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to kill civilians and pulverise Ukraine’s economic infrastructure systematically and primarily with impunity.
