MARK ALMOND: Germany is unforgivably dragging its ft about tanks for Ukraine…

The most brutal trench warfare considering the fact that the Somme in the Very first World War is raging in japanese Ukraine. Vladimir Putin is sending wave on wave of troops more than the best – resulting in devastating casualties on both equally sides.

Back in 1918, it was the tank – a British creation – that broke the stalemate on the Western Entrance and finished that war decisively. Now, unable to compete with Russia’s source of cannon-fodder recruits, Ukrainians see modern day Western tanks as the best way to split the again of the invading force.

Ukraine has presently knocked out huge figures of Russian tanks but Putin has a lot more coming into motion this spring. So Volodymyr Zelensky is pleading for 300 modern tanks to blunt the impending offensive.

Nevertheless Germany is unforgivably dragging its feet, refusing to allow for German-manufactured Leopard II tanks – a single of the world’s most formidable weapons – to be sent to Ukraine.

Formidable: A German Leopard 2 tank

Vladimir Putin is sending wave upon wave of troops about the leading – ensuing in devastating casualties on both equally sides

And, because Berlin holds a veto more than the export of German-made weapons held by its allies, countries this kind of as Poland and Portugal are not able to mail their Leopard 2 tanks, even however they want to.

It would seem German chancellor Olaf Scholz will not budge on the make a difference until the US also gives Ukraine with its Abrams M1 tanks – but this is madness.

The Abrams tanks are not in Europe in sufficient figures to have a decisive effect on the war and they guzzle vast quantities of jet fuel or diesel.

It would have to have an extraordinary logistical physical exercise to deliver them about from the US and then to assure they had enough specialised gasoline and spare areas on the battlefield of Ukraine. 

In contrast, there are 2,000 German-designed Leopards in Europe and, for the reason that they run on diesel, large quantities of them are completely ready to roll. Germany is only citing the Abrams as a pretext for inaction.

The fact is that more cynical calculations lie behind Scholz’s refusal to give the go-forward.

Of system, he has claimed that there has been a sea-change in relations with Russia right after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and swiftly managed to wean Germany off Moscow’s fuel source when war broke out. Nonetheless Berlin nonetheless hankers to revive economic back links with Russia as shortly as achievable.

The German financial state has been rocked by Western sanctions in opposition to Russia. As an export-led overall economy, Germany wants low-cost Russian electricity and uncooked supplies for production.

Reopening Russia’s fuel spigot is observed by Scholz as vital to Germany’s restoration from the devastating financial impression of the war.

And it is not as if Scholz is experiencing domestic force to act.

Scarred by the horrors of two Entire world Wars, Germans panic that armed forces assistance to Ukraine hazards escalation – which in the worst situation would involve the use of nuclear weapons by Russia. 

For that purpose, public impression tends to back again Scholz, with the most up-to-date poll demonstrating that 46 for each cent of Germans oppose sending Leopards to Ukraine, with 43 for every cent in favour.

Scholz could also harbour a private reluctance to send out in the tanks. As a youthful socialist and pacifist, he was a common at anti-Nato demonstrations in the 1980s – correctly, he was Germany’s answer to Jeremy Corbyn. And he may well fear that capitulating to Nato associates clamouring that tanks be sent will make him appear weak.

Although Scholz’s dithering could possibly be doing work to his benefit domestically, it is cruelly pricey to Ukrainians. And by making an attempt to activity the latest war to guarantee Germany’s extensive-time period financial basic safety, he is poisoning Berlin’s relations with its associates in the EU and Nato.

Not since the finish of the 2nd World War has Germany been such a pariah. What a bitter irony that, by refusing Ukraine his tanks, this veteran peacenik is properly siding with Putin the aggressor.

Mark Almond is director of the Disaster Analysis Institute, Oxford.