U-turn in Berlin: The federal government has now approved deliveries of tanks to the Ukraine. It’s about former armored personnel carriers of the GDR army.
The federal government has approved the delivery of armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Defense confirmed a corresponding report by the newspaper “Welt” to the DPA news agency.
Accordingly, the Ukrainian armed forces are to receive 56 armored fighting vehicles of the type “PbV-501” (formerly “BMP-1”). The vehicles originally came from the stocks of the National People’s Army of the GDR and initially came into the possession of the Bundeswehr with the German unity.
Armored personnel carriers are to go to Ukraine
The armored personnel carriers then got to a company in the Czech Republic via the Swedish army, according to the “Welt”. The company now wants to sell the tanks to the Ukrainian army, but needs the approval of the federal government to do so. In 2019, the government under Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) rejected the same deal, the report says. The reasoning at the time: the dialogue with Russia should not be jeopardized.
So far, the new traffic light government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had refused to supply Ukraine with tanks. The latest decision is a further turning point in the federal government’s security policy in the Ukraine war.
The infantry fighting vehicle model was developed in the 1960s and was part of the standard equipment of the Warsaw Pact armies. It is buoyant as an amphibious tracked vehicle and is equipped with cannons and machine guns. A total of almost 17,000 copies were made over the decades.
According to “Welt”, it will still take a few weeks for the “PbV-501″/”BMP-1” to arrive in the Ukraine and be operational, as they first have to be upgraded.
Editor’s note: In a first version of the article, there was talk of up to 58 infantry fighting vehicles to be delivered to Ukraine. In fact, there are 56. We have corrected the information.
Swell: DPA news agency
Source: Stern
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