French AMX ‘tank killer’
Dan Sabbagh, Philip Oltermann – The Guardian Jan 5, 2023
Germany has hinted that it may allow tanks or armoured vehicles to be sent to Ukraine a day after France said it would supply armoured vehicles to Kyiv in an attempt to create a breakthrough in the ten-month war.
Ministers and officials from Berlin indicated that a decision to supply Marder infantry fighting vehicles or Leopard 2 tanks for the first time could be taken at the next meeting of the “Ramstein” Ukraine Defence Contact Group – a series of regular talks between Ukraine and its allies – in mid-January.
The German position on delivering heavy weapons to Ukraine had never been “static”, said Robert Habeck, the economy minister and deputy to chancellor Olaf Scholz, on a visit to the Norwegian capital Oslo.
“The Allies have expanded their position at two points, namely France and the US being prepared to deliver lighter tanks,” Habeck said. “And that will certainly also influence the German position.”
France said on Wednesday it was upping its military aid to Kyiv, by supplying an unspecified number of AMX-10 RC light armoured vehicles capable – experts said – of scouting roles and supporting main battle tanks.
A few hours later, Joe Biden, the US president, said American-made Bradley fighting vehicles could also be sent to Ukraine. Administration officials added later that a decision on the Bradleys could come as soon as later this week.
Ukraine has repeatedly said that it needs about 300 tanks and 600-700 infantry fighting vehicles from the west in order to give its military a chance of breaking through the increasingly fortified Russian positions along the frontline.
However, the US and Germany have both been wary of supplying Ukraine with Nato-standard tanks, because they feared it would be interpreted by Russia as escalatory. But as the fighting has gone on, the west has gradually given Kyiv more effective western weapons to try to help it win the war.
On Wednesday night, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Paris’s decision “sends a clear signal to all our other partners: there is no rational reason why Ukraine has not yet been supplied with western-type tanks”.
The country’s leader also highlighted the forthcoming defence ministers’ meeting, and said “before the new ‘Ramstein’ such signal is extremely relevant”. Chaired by the US, the international meeting is where western defence ministers discuss and coordinate future packages of military aid for Ukraine.
Ukraine has long had its eye on western tanks and armour to compliment its reduced fleet of Soviet-designed T-64 and T-72 tanks and BMP infantry vehicles, after over 10 months of fighting. Kyiv has received about 200 post-Soviet tanks from eastern European countries since the start of the war, but the available supply in Europe is now limited.
To replenish its stocks and build up a fresh attacking force, Ukraine has sought to obtain US-made M1A1 Abrams tanks and most persistently, German-made Leopard 2 tanks, of which there are about 2,000 in service in 13 European countries, and Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
Regardless of which country owns the Leopards or Marders, approval from Berlin is required to re-export them to Ukraine.
“Tanks are potentially decisive because there is no substitute if you want to attack enemy formations in defensive positions,” said Ben Barry, a former British army tank commander and land warfare analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies thinktank.
Russia has largely sought to dig in since abandoning its exposed position in Kherson on the west side of the Dnieper River in November, as it tries to consolidate its occupation of a swathe of territory roughly the size of Portugal in the east and south of Ukraine.
A breakthrough, if it comes at all, is likely to require the combined use of tanks, heavy armour and infantry, replicating a standard offensive tactic that dates back to the second world war. “The effectiveness of infantry is doubled, even with just three or four tanks helping,” Barry added.
France’s six-wheeled AMX-10 RC were first deployed in the 1980s and have been used in multiple operations from Afghanistan to Mali. They are in the process of being phased out by Paris however, making them an ideal gift for Ukraine.
An aide to France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said it was “the first time that western-designed tanks are supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces” but experts said the AMX-10 RC is too lightly armoured to be considered a proper tank. Such rhetoric, however, may be useful cover if Germany shifts its position.
The Fripperts can send whatever they want, not going to help the losers. You know that shit Country with a shit flag of yellow and blue, yeah losers…
The only organisation I am a member of is the Stop the War coalition.
It is a staunchly Left Wing organisation and the keynote speaker at its upcoming Conference is Jeremy Corbyn.
I simply do not have a Left Wing brain, but the Left are the only ones opposing this significantly, see also Roger Waters and Jon Pilger.
Even then, it is only a minority of Leftists.
The BBC News Corps is much more typical and beyond pathetic in its ridiculous Telling You What To Think in place of Journalism :-
‘The Kremlin’s ceasefire fits in nicely with a common narrative in Moscow, one that is aimed primarily at the domestic audience. That is – that the Russians are the good guys, and it is Ukraine and the West that are threatening Russia.
The truce is also a handy tool that can be used to demonise Ukraine – as the Ukrainians have dismissed the proposal, Moscow will claim that Kyiv does not respect religious believers and has no desire for peace.
But it should not be forgotten that it was Russia who started this war by launching an unprovoked invasion of its neighbour.’ :-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-64178912
Any real conservative with a sense of Truth and Tradition should support Christian Russia by instinct, but British Conservatives are as hopelessly incapable of critical thinking or doing the most basic research for themselves as the rest of the population.
And this is the Age of the Internet and unprecedented access to information, wherein there is absolutely excuse for not being informed.
‘I will cease to blame the stupidity of the slaves
Upon their masters and nurture, and will say,
Plainly, that they are enemies to culture,
Advancement and cleanliness.’
so germany has merited a jewish false
flag like Germa Wings !
nuke on Berlin ?
Germany going up against Russia… AGAIN?
WHAT could POSSIBLY go WRONG??? 😅😆😂🤣
The Russians must be kicking themselves for being too liberal in 1945.
Germans should simply surrender by collectively pulling down their lederhosen and aim their asses towards Israel with a tattoo “Open for Business”.
F’n disgrace.
This is all good news for the military/industrial mafia! Just keep pouring those “Ukraine-helping” weapons into the gun grinder. There’s more where those came from. These wars sure kill lots of people but where’s the sympathy for the innocent by-stander? All the concern for people when it comes to a “deadly” virus like Covid with Draconian measures being enforced to protect mankind. But it’s so easy for basically the same power crowd to wage wars based on lies, killing millions in the process! (Of course, those “mankind-saving” “vaccines” are actually bioweapons that can wipe out more people silently than ten wars!)
Russia needs to wipe the nonces out across all of the western world as they are really full of thick retards
I do not want to live on Mars. If this S### keeps going the earth will be as lifeless as Mars. There is no halfway to annellation. The American people need to go on a nationwide strike until their government stops their war mongering stupidly. This is a life-or-death decision, life on Earth OR no life on Earth. THERE IS NO WINNERS ONLY LOSERS.
Hank nails it in his comment above.
“However, the US and Germany have both been wary of supplying Ukraine with Nato-standard tanks, because they feared it would be interpreted by Russia as escalatory.” … Escalotory, eh? I think they have already shit the bed as far as avoiding anything that could be considered “escalatory”.
The deranged West, so deeply subverted and led by the nose by the force of degradation and destruction that is satanic Jewry, has done everything provocatory and escalatory as possible short of having the grotesque Jew festering c*nt Victoria Nuland waddle through the Kremlin in an Uncle Sam costume and pimp-slapping everyone in sight with a big rubber dong painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and stickers of the NATO emblem affixed along the shaft.
“Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Paris’s decision ‘sends a clear signal to all our other partners: there is no rational reason why Ukraine has not yet been supplied with western-type tanks'”. … In the spirit of satanic inversion, the depraved little clown Zelensky has it completely backwards, as there is no rational reason why the absurdly corrupt shit-hole of Ukraine should be supplied with western weapons.
In a sane world, the degenerate psychopath Zelensky would have been set upon by right-thinking men of integrity during that shockingly absurd shit-show in the Jew-S-A Congress a couple weeks ago, dragged down the front steps of the Capitol by his ankles, have the ever living piss beaten out of him, and hanged from the nearest lamppost or stout tree branch. But, alas, there are no right-thinking men of integrity left in Congress, as it has become nothing but a clubhouse for depravity, degradation, destruction, and treason.
The whole Ukraine thing stinks of yet another pantomime dumpster fire and deranged puppet show of destruction, another act in Goys Must Go from the production team of Shlomo and the Maniacal Tribe of Homicidal Maniacs. Both “sides” in the Ukraine debacle controlled by the same hooked-nose puppeteers, with Chabad Vlad just playing along with his role just like his lackeys-and-cucks-to-the-Jews counterparts in the quickly imploding West.
Funny how the Ukraine distraction popped up just when a much larger portion of the plebs, hoi polloi, bourgeoisie, and even those wealthy who aren’t in (((the club))) were getting REAL tired of the covid-1984 massive assault on humanity and were starting to open their eyes to the fact there was no actual “pandemic” but very much a plandemic, scamdemic, and their own “governments”, which we here know to be illegitimate and nothing but criminal cartels, had turned completely and violently against them.