Thus, Germany itself will have 26 additional Marder BMPs, which can be transferred to Ukraine as soon as possible. This is stated in the publication of Bild.
German journalists remind that in September 2022, Germany and Greece agreed on the terms of the "ring exchange": first, the Germans transfer Marders (40 units in total), and then the Greeks give their BMP-1 to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (also 40 units). By the beginning of January 2023, Greece had already sent 20 units of BMP-1 to Ukraine, but Germany handed over only 16 Marder armored vehicles to the Greek military.
Read more: 40 Marder Vehicles by March: Germany Reveals to the Pace of Long-Awaited Deliveries, How Many More to Expect Afterward
The release of the "Greek" Marder IFVs is actually of great importance. Because in Berlin they still haven't decided how and where they will takethe armored vehicles that have already been promised for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Initially, it was about the fact that Germany would transfer 40 "Marders" to Ukraine from the storage warehouses of its industry. Now, as Bild writes, Germany’s Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht says that 40 Marder armored vehicles will have to be taken both from industrial warehouses and from the formation units of the Bundeswehr.
According to the spokesman of the German Ministry of Defense, the Bundeswehr has 370 Marder infantry fighting vehicles "on paper". But some of them can in fact be used only training purposes, and some of them are completely disassembled, because they were used as "donors of spare parts".
If Germany accepts Greece's offer to wait for the implementation of the "ring exchange", this option will also be beneficial for Ukraine. On the one hand, Ukraine’s army may not receive + 20 BMP-1 from Greece at all. But instead, it will be possible to speed up the transition of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to Western-made infantry fighting vehicles.
Because it seems that the choice here is: either two dozen BMP-1 IFVs in the next 3 months and another batch of excuses for the delay of the Marder IFVs, or 40 Marder IFVs in the first quarter of 2023, as Berlin actually promised.
As Defense Express reported, U.S. and Germany Take the Plunge and Finally Commit to Supply Bradley and Marder IFVs to Ukraine.
Read more: German Marder vs. American Bradley: Comparing the Really Important Details That Matter
