There will be no grace period for Germany's new defence minister who takes office as pressure is piling on Berlin to send battle tanks to Ukraine and to upgrade its dilapidated armed forces in the face of Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.
Boris Pistorius, 62, will take over on Thursday, just a day before a major arms pledging conference at the U.S. military base of Ramstein in western Germany, succeeding Christine Lambrecht, who quit on Monday following a series of blunders.
