Internal sources in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization told journalists there is an informal agreement between some participating states not to supply certain types of weapons to Ukraine. According to information from the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) news agency, the idea is to keep the risk of a direct military confrontation between NATO and russia as low as possible, Zeit reports.
There are fears, for example, that Russia may officially consider the supply of Western battle tanks and combat aircraft as entry into the war, and then take military retaliatory measures. Weapons systems of this type have not yet been delivered to Ukraine, sources in the Alliance circles told DPA.
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Those informal agreements have been indirectly confirmed in the past by French President Emmanuel Macron, among others.
"There is a limit, which is not to become a party to the war," he said in March after a NATO summit on the subject of arms deliveries.
This could be the reason behind the various times when Ukraine got denied combat aircraft or heavy weapons. For instance, the transfer of MiG-29s could be "misunderstood by Moscow's intelligence services", as Tod D. Wolters, the commander-in-chief of the US armed forces in Europe, said.
A NATO spokesman said on Wednesday that all delivery decisions are ultimately a matter for the individual Member States. Diplomats told DPA that the countries have so far adhered to informal agreements. One of the reasons is that they would be otherwise left without Alliance's support if russia attacks them. For this reason, Poland, for example, is said to have refrained from delivering Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in March.
And now there are delays in the arms supplies from Germany. Bundestag has adopted the decision to supply heavy weapons such as tanks and armored carriers to Ukraine, but the upper chamber doesn't allow to do that. Publicly, the Federal Cabinet has promised to deliver two types of heavy weapons to Ukraine: Gepard anti-aircraft tanks and Panzerhaubitzen 2000 self-propelled howitzers.
Ukraine has been calling for Germany to provide also Leopard-type main battle tanks and Marder-type armored personnel carriers which are present at the Bundeswehr. German manufacturer Rheinmetall has already offered to deliver used examples of both models, but the formal decision from the Federal Cabinet hasn't come through yet. This ambiguous position was criticized in the Bundestag as well. Opposition member in the parliament said there are no deliveries of heavy armor so far:
"It's not happening. In doing so, the federal government is violating a binding decision by parliament," noted Johann Wadephul MP, CDU politician.
Ukrainian President Zelensky said Ukraine must meet 100% of its military needs in order to counter russia and stop this war:
"Ukraine needs all the weapons we ask for, not just the ones we are given," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos this Tuesday. That means, both in quantity and quality of the supplied weapons.
NATO, on the other hand, protects the Federal Cabinet.
"Germany has provided Ukraine with thousands of weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank missiles," the spokesman said on Wednesday. In addition, the German decision to provide Ukraine with artillery weapons and anti-aircraft tanks is also welcomed.
The sources from the alliance's inner circles emphasized that the risk analyses for arms deliveries are constantly being updated. That said, at some point, western battle tanks and fighter jets might also be delivered to Ukraine in the future.
Based on the reporting by the dpa, Zeit.
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