Why Olaf Scholz is reluctant to send battle tanks to Ukraine

Olaf Scholz is under growing international pressure to make a momentous decision: whether or not to give the green light for German battle tanks to be sent to Ukraine. Berlin’s western allies have been turning the screws on the German leader as Kyiv pleads for more weapons to consolidate its gains against Russia and recapture occupied territory as the war approaches its first anniversary. Public statements by leading German ministers in recent days suggest that the government’s position is shifting. But Scholz, who is the ultimate decision maker, has yet to indicate a change of heart.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the Free Democratic party (FDP) chair of the Bundestag’s defence committee and a prominent Russia hawk, suggested that the SPD leadership had misunderstood the meaning of pacifism. “If you see the aggression of Russia and you see how brutal the fighting against Ukraine is, it’s not un-pacifist if you try to protect yourself.” The “terrible” destruction inflicted by German tanks on the Soviet Union — which included Ukraine — in the second world war still cast a long shadow in her country, she said. But history, she argued, could be used to make a positive case for sending tanks. “You could . . . say that German tanks, German soldiers were a nightmare for the Ukrainian people in the second world war, and now this materiel is not a nightmare any more — it’s to help Ukraine.”