Thread by @ThatKHersch

1/ The leading German newsweekly, Der Spiegel, is reporting that the Biden administration is "quite sympathetic" to the idea of #Germany being the first country to provide #Ukraine with modern, western-designed #tanks and other armored vehicles.
spiegel.de/politik/deutsc…

2/ Spiegel: "US diplomats recently signaled to the German government on several occasions that Washington was quite sympathetic to an explosive idea: that Germany would be the first country to announce tank deliveries and thus possibly involve other EU partners."

3/ The Spiegel report, which notes that Washington itself is still undecided about whether or not to supply Ukraine with western-designed tanks, dovetails with reporting by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung earlier this week.

https://twitter.com/ThatKHersch/status/1568986879277555712

4/ These reports seem to be part of an increasingly public effort to get Germany to consider delivery of modern armor to Ukraine.

5/ Yesterday, for example, the U.S. embassy in Berlin yesterday called "on all allies and partners to lend as much support as possible to Ukraine." The embassy also noted that "The decision on the type of aid ultimately lies with each country itself."

https://twitter.com/usbotschaft/status/1569601653040463873

6/ More pointedly, the Ukrainian foreign ministry yesterday openly shared its disappointment that Germany seems unwilling to approve delivery of modern "Leopard" battle tanks and "Marder" infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1569637880204775426

7/ The push to have Germany take the lead on the delivery of modern armor may be part of a wider strategy to ensure that support for Ukraine is correctly perceived as a multilateral effort. This is something I have encouraged in the past.

https://twitter.com/ThatKHersch/status/1537306337595600898