Poland is one of the leaders in providing military aid to Ukraine. Kyiv received more than 250 Soviet-made tanks from Warsaw.
Long after the beginning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine Circular arms deliveries are considered almost the motto of Berlin’s policy towards Kyiv and at the same time a synonym for hesitation and half measures. The point is that Germany supplies some types of weapons, mainly tanks and other heavy weapons, not to Ukraine, but to other NATO countries. Those, in turn, are transferring to Ukraine obsolete Soviet-made weapons they have at their disposal. The benefit of such a method in Berlin was seen in the fact that in this way Germany avoids the direct supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine and at the same time modernizes the armies of NATO partners in Central and Eastern Europe.
More than half a year has passed since this idea was first announced, and now almost nobody hears about it. At first, this model did not work; later, in some cases, transactions are carried out, often with significant slippage. Poland absolutely refused to participate in the round-robin supply of weapons, in the case of Greece, it took several months to agree on their terms and details. And so far, some transactions have been successfully completed, others are in progress.
Therefore, it is possible to summarize the preliminary results by answering the questions: do round-robin arms deliveries help Ukraine? What do they provide to the NATO countries that participate in them? Does this model have a future? In this regard, the question also arises, does it reinforce the idea of Germany as a country that is the largest economy in Europe, but does not play a leading role in the issue of military support to Ukraine?
Poland was not interested in German proposals
Poland is one of the leaders in providing military aid to Ukraine. Kyiv received more than 250 Soviet-made tanks from Warsaw. Poland badly needed replenishment of its weapons, and circular deliveries from Germany could solve the problem. But the deal did not take place, currently there are no negotiations on this topic in Germany, the Polish Ministry of Defense told DW. Initially, Germany offered to supply Warsaw with 20 Leopard 2A4 tanks, which would become operational only after a year, as well as 100 obsolete Leopard 1A5 tanks or used Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
“The Polish government is not satisfied with this proposal,” Justyna Gotkowska, an expert at the Warsaw Center for Oriental Studies, told DW. According to him, firstly, Poland expects to receive weapons for an entire battalion, that is, at least 44 tanks, and secondly, they must be modern tanks. “The Polish army is now going through a process of accelerated modernization, so it sees no point in investing in old weapons,” the expert said.
Poland is currently buying several hundred new and used Abrams tanks from the US. In addition, in July, the Polish Ministry of Defense signed an agreement with South Korea on the acquisition of 180 modern K2 Black Panther tanks and 212 self-propelled howitzers. According to Gotkowska, on the issue of military-technical cooperation in tanks, Germany is at the bottom of the list of Poland’s partners.
Big politics also had a definite influence on the failed round-robin arms deliveries to Poland. “Warsaw believes that the FRG, based on its capabilities, does not provide Ukraine with proper military support,” the expert believes.
The Czech Republic and Poland enjoyed round-robin arms supplies
The Czech Republic and Slovakia, and to a lesser extent Slovenia, are among those European countries that provide significant military assistance to Ukraine. In the spring, Slovakia handed over an air defense system to Ukraine and in return received Patriot air defense systems from Germany and the Netherlands. In the summer, Bratislava gave 30 Soviet-made tanks to Ukraine, Prague – 40 tanks. In return, Slovakia will receive 15 and the Czech Republic 14 Leopard tanks from Germany. Slovenia sent 35 infantry fighting vehicles to Kyiv in July, and 28 tanks by the end of October, and will receive 43 army trucks from Germany.
“In the Czech Republic, circular arms deliveries with Germany are generally considered useful and positively assessed. They help the country modernize the army,” Czech political scientist Jiri Pehe told DW. Grigory Mesezhnikov, head of the Institute for Public Problems (IVO) in Bratislava, assessed the situation for Slovakia in a similar way. According to him, in exchange for old air defense systems and tanks, Slovakia receives modern weapons from Germany.
Otherwise, in both countries, they assess the political background of the circular supply of arms. “The majority of Czechs sympathize with pacifist sentiments in post-war Germany, but do not understand why the FRG is not ready to send some kind of weapons to Ukraine now, when peace is possible only as a result of defeat of the Russian military,” said Jiri Pehe. As Mesezhnikov said in his turn, “Germany must realize that Russia threatens our common freedom.” “It would be good if Berlin played a leading role in Europe in providing military aid to Ukraine,” he said.
Greece: investing in European solidarity
In the case of Greece, it took a long time to conclude a deal, but now it is implemented. The Greek army will receive only 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles from Germany, some of which have already been shipped. In return, Greece will provide Ukraine with 40 Soviet-made tanks. At the same time, increasing Greece’s defense capability is not the main purpose of the delivery of the Marder infantry fighting vehicle, Antonis Kamaras, a military expert at the Athens Analytical Center for European and Foreign Policy ELIAMEP, told DW.
In his opinion, the use of the port of Alexandroupolis as a transshipment point for the transfer of arms, equipment and ammunition to Ukraine is a greater contribution of Greece to the general unity than the supply of tanks to Ukraine.
Like the Czech and Slovak experts, Kamaras sympathizes with the fact that Germany is not ready to send the Marder BMP directly to Ukraine. “It is still forbidden for the German government to see German tanks on the same battlefields as in World War II. This is the history of Germany,” he said.
Germany is gradually abandoning its taboos
Social Democrat Hans-Peter Bartels, head of the Society for Security Policy (GSP), Germany’s oldest organization in the field, sees arms rotations as simply “a temporary phase of German policy in which they don’t want to supply arms to Ukraine directly.” “. But the situation is gradually changing because, for example, the Germans are already transferring rocket launchers and heavy artillery to Ukraine, Bartels told DW. “Yesterday’s skepticism is becoming ‘maybe’ today and ‘we’re proud of it tomorrow,'” he added, noting that the longer the war goes on, the more attitudes change.
At the same time, Bartels does not believe that the circular supply of weapons has seriously helped the Ukrainian military, because recent months have shown how Western weapons are more effective than the old Soviet ones. According to him, the argument that Ukrainians do not know how to handle Western weapons, because they are trained to do so, is also weakening.
Slovak political scientist Milan Nitsch of the German Society for Foreign Policy (DGAP) also sees the idea of transferring circular weapons as a harbinger of a possible new German policy, and not only regarding Ukraine. “The governments of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have long understood the fact that Germany does not play a leading role in Europe,” Nitsch told DW. “However, I can imagine that Germany will indeed enter a new era in foreign and defense policy and will be an active player that will help strengthen the eastern part of NATO and the EU.”
Source: korrespondent
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.