Germany, Poland, Slovakia: European tanks soon in Ukraine?

How far we have come since the day after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, a German diplomat reportedly replied to his Ukrainian counterpart that there was no sense in sending military equipment to the Ukrainian armies, since the latter would be swept away in a few days. In fact, for the past few days, declarations have multiplied in Europe, and more generally in the whole of the Western camp, in favor of much more sustained support given to Ukraine in terms of defense equipment, including the heavy equipment requested for several weeks by Kyiv to stand up to the waves of assault launched by Moscow.

Already, last week, Prague had confirmed sending T-72M1 tanks and BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles taken from its reserve park in the direction of Ukraine, closely followed by Bratislava which confirmed sending its single anti-aircraft battery S-300 PMU to replace the significant Ukrainian losses in this area. Great Britain, for its part, announced this weekend, thanks to the visit of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kyiv to meet his counterpart Volodymir Zelensky, that London would send armored vehicles as well as new anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, but also anti-ship missiles and vagrant ammunition, without it being known precisely what types of ammunition it could be, the Royal Navy having no anti-ship missiles in coastal battery version, and the British Army not using vagrant ammunition. The United States, for its part, announced a new shipment of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles, as well as Switchblade 300 and 600 vagrant ammunition. Even Australia joined in the momentum, sending in Ukraine Bushmaster armored vehicles.

The announcements continued this week. Thus, Slovakia has announced that it is in discussion with Kyiv to send a battery of 12 x 155mm SpGH Zuzana self-propelled guns, a vehicle-mounted self-propelled artillery system8×8 ule reputed to be particularly efficient and precise, and equipped with a range of more than 40 km, well beyond the capabilities of the Russian 2S19 Msta-S systems. It also announced that it would be possible to transfer the dozen Mig-29s still in service within its air force, which were to be withdrawn from service very soon to be replaced by the new F-16 Block 70+ Viper ordered, but that for the time being, the subject was not "on the table", namely that no request on the part of its NATO allies has been made in this regard. Let us recall that the Atlantic Alliance deployed a new Patriot battery in Slovakia when it sent its S-300 battery to Ukraine, and that these transfers of heavy weapons are precisely controlled by NATO as much as by the States themselves, so as not to weaken the defensive posture of the eastern front of the alliance.

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