Berlin approves delivery of tanks from the Czech Republic to Ukraine
The federal government has approved the delivery of armored personnel carriers from the Czech Republic to Ukraine. These are 58 armored personnel carriers that come from the stocks of the National People’s Army of the GDR, as the “Welt” reported on Friday.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense told the German Press Agency that a corresponding permit had been granted.
According to the report, the PbV-501 (formerly BMP-1) armored combat vehicles are equipped with cannons and machine guns and are part of the standard equipment of the Warsaw Pact armies. The armored personnel carriers came into the possession of the German armed forces with reunification and were initially handed over to the Swedish army at the end of the 1990s. This later sold it to a Czech company, which in turn is now trying to sell it to the Czech army. However, this required German approval.
It is politically explosive that this approval was previously rejected by the federal government, the newspaper reported. According to information from “Welt am Sonntag”, the Czech company already wanted to sell the same armored personnel carriers to the Czech army in 2019. At that time, too, a formal application was made to the federal government.
Because of the so-called end-use clause, weapons that originally came from the Bundeswehr may only be sold to third parties with a place from the federal government. In 2019, however, this was still rejected. At that time, the government under Angela Merkel (CDU) had decided not to deliver any weapons to Ukraine in order not to endanger the dialogue with Russia. The tanks will not be delivered to the Ukraine immediately because the infantry fighting vehicles will be repaired first & it was said. This will take a few weeks.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220401-99-758705/2