Switzerland on November 22 finally agreed on the return sale of 25 Leopard 2 tanks to Germany.
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According to some experts, the transfer of Swiss tanks to Germany could have positive consequences for Ukraine, because the agreement does not prohibit the export of other military vehicles from the allied reserves to Ukraine, the place of which could be taken by Swiss tanks, writes Voice of America.
This followed months of diplomatic wrangling over whether the move would violate the country’s neutrality. The supply of Swiss tanks will allow the German army to fill the deficit in its own reserves that arose after sending heavy armored vehicles to Ukraine.
The Swiss export permit is conditional on the fact that Berlin will not send these cars to Kyiv. This legal formulation finally broke the impasse, the emergence of which has angered many of Switzerland’s neighbors and provoked a public war of words, writes the FT.
The vehicles will be transferred to the original manufacturer – the German defense concern Rheinmetall.
One of the main conditions of the agreement is that tanks should not get into Ukraine and be used there in hostilities, because this would go against the constitutionally enshrined neutrality of Switzerland. This was reported by the German network Deutsche Welle.
The present agreement on the transfer of combat vehicles has been discussed since February 2023, when the German government sent an official request to Switzerland. Since then, Ukraine’s European allies, led by Germany, have tried to persuade neutral Switzerland to sell them some of the country’s surplus tanks to replace the corresponding weapons transferred by Ukraine’s allies.
The Swiss Federal Council on November 22 said in a statement quoted by Deutsche Welle that “this supply of tanks abroad complies with the approval criteria and legislation on military materials. Particularly important is the fact that Germany has assured that the sold tanks will remain in Germany or with NATO or EU partners to make up for its own shortages.”
As David Ax explains in his Forbes article, Germany has introduced a cyclical mechanism for providing weapons to allied countries called Ringtausche, allowing them to transfer their weapons to Ukraine, receiving additional German equipment in return.
Thus, for example, Germany has already sent 14 Leopard 2A4 tanks to the Czech Republic in exchange for the Czech Republic supplying Ukraine with at least 50 of its old T-72 tanks. This approach is relatively new for Germany, recalls DWelle, because at the beginning of the Russian war the country had warnings similar to Switzerland regarding the transfer of weapons to Ukraine.
Thus, Rheinmetall may subsequently sell or transfer former Swiss tanks to a third country in exchange for providing Ukraine with appropriate weapons. This could be a country that is armed with the Leopard 2 of the appropriate modification, so that Ukraine receives just such vehicles.
Under this agreement we are talking about tanks of the Leopard 2A4 modification. In the late 1980s, Switzerland purchased 380 Pz 87 tanks from Germany, essentially a version of the four-seat Leopard 2A4, only with Swiss machine guns and radios. In the 2010s, Switzerland modernized 134 of these tanks for further use. According to DW, there are 136 such vehicles in service in the country.
The Swiss later sold some of the surplus tanks, and put 96 unmodernized tanks into storage. It is from these reserves that 25 vehicles will be selected for return to Germany.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.