Germany's FM Baerbock acknowledges sending obsolete military equipment to Ukraine

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday acknowledged that its defense ministry had sent outdated or almost non-functional military equipment to Ukraine, according to Sputnik news agency. "It does not only help to promise, and then you cannot deliver, or deliver things which do not work. Some of our systems were really old-fashioned," Baerbock said in an interview with an American media outlet. She admitted that Berlin had resorted to sending outdated or almost non-functional military equipment to Ukraine to fight the Russian aggression. 

“So, because we know and we said that in the beginning, some are not really functioning, when we deliver, it does have to work in the field,” German Foreign Minister  Annalena Baerbock said. 

Ukraine had previously rejected 10 archaic Leopard-1A5 from Germany due to their "significant need for repairs", which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's regime said was challenging due to the lack of trained technicians as well as the availability of spare parts. The German tanks required extensive repair work, which wouldn't be possible amid the ongoing war, German publication Spiegel reported. Until July 2023, Berlin, only second to the United States in providing military aid, had sent equipment worth $18.9 billion, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy report. 

12 out of 20 Leopard 1A5 tanks sent to Ukraine faulty

Denmark's Defense Ministry declared that 12 out of 20 Leopard 1A5 tanks that were supplied to Ukraine have been found 'faulty'. According to the Danish government-owned TV2 channel, at least ten Leopard 1 battle tanks that have arrived in Ukraine sustained minor defects. The tanks are being repaired by Ukraine's military.

"This is more to do with the nature of how quickly Ukraine wants weapons," Jordan Cohen, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute, told the outlet Newsweek.

"If weapons are being sent swiftly, they are either coming from excess defense stocks (they are already made) or they are being produced within 18 months when the usual process can take twice that long," he added, highlighting the core of the issue. 

A statement released by Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that at least ten Leopard 1 battle tanks out of the total supplied to Kyiv's military have come out with defects that are repaired by Ukraine's military. Poulsen added that two out of the other batch of 10 tanks sent by Denmark that are still in Poland were found to be faulty.  Last week, German news outlet Spiegel reported that the military of Ukraine refused the batch of 10 Leopard 1A5 tanks that was offered by Berlin citing issues with being able to repair them.

According to Danish reports, the 10 Leopards that were supplied by Germany to Ukraine's Army in July had suffered similar technical issues. The three EU members, Denmark, Netherlands, and Germany, together, had agreed to send at least 100 obsolete Leopard 1 MBTs to Kyiv, which the latter said could not be repaired due to critical shortage of skilled engineers amid the war.