April 28, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

BMP "Marder"which Germany gives to Greece, Ukraine asked

Germany will transfer Marder armored personnel carriers to Greece, which Ukraine and the German arms company Rheinmetall agreed on in a declaration of intent back in March.

Writes about it Bild, citing government sources. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Tuesday an exchange in which 50 German Marder armored personnel carriers will be transferred to Greece, and Greece will quickly supply “Soviet-made tanks” to Ukraine, says “EUROPEAN TRUTH”.

According to the publication, we are talking about German armored vehicles, for which Rheinmetall applied for export to Ukraine to the Federal Security Council on April 22. Bild’s source says:

“With today’s Marder deal for Ukraine, discussions are finally over. Scholz wanted to ‘finally put an end to the tedious debate about armored personnel carriers.’

According to the source, this is why the still functioning Marder are being taken out of Germany so that they become unavailable to Ukraine. In return, approximately 100 Soviet soldiers will depart from Greece to Ukraine. combat vehicles infantry type “BMP-1A1 Vostok”.

These are infantry fighting vehicles from warehouses, Germany sold them to Greece in the early 1990s, priced at 50,000 marks (about 25,000 euros) each. Age BMP – from 50 to 58 years. Soviet vehicles were practically not used, some of them were resold by Greece to Egypt and Iraq, the rest are used as training targets in military maneuvers.

Bild also reports its awareness that the now announced deal has been in the chancellor’s office since February 28, and it could have been done not with Greece, but with Bulgaria. Sofia offered Germany to quickly supply Ukraine with 90 combat BMP-1s in exchange for 90 Marders from Germany, but Berlin did not approve of the deal.

Just the day before, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, head of the Bundestag’s defense committee, urged the federal government to deliver 50 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine as soon as possible.

Meanwhile in Greece, a scandal breaks out. Even Pentagon officials did not know about the government’s decision to send, in agreement with Germany, BMP 1 to Ukraine, the publication reports. Efsin. After the statements of the German chancellor, the Ministry of National Defense sounded the alarm: the opposition parties demand immediate explanations, while the choice is openly questioned, based on their current operational situation.



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