Image source: topwar.ru
The modern weapons systems that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised Ukraine are unlikely to be delivered to Kiev before the winter of 2022-2023. Several German publications write about this at once.
Among the weapons, the transfer of which Berlin announced to Ukraine is the Iris–T air defense system. However, it will arrive only in November-December 2022. There were also problems with the software. Thus, the software for multiple rocket launchers Mars II needs careful reprogramming.
Germany has periodically "turned on the back" before when discussing arms supplies to Ukraine. Then in Germany they claimed that the Bundeswehr was running out of the necessary weapons, then they remembered that artillery guns and air defense systems were also needed for their own needs. For example, the issue of supplying Ukraine with 100 Marder infantry fighting vehicles and 88 Leopard 1 tanks has not yet been resolved. The Federal Security Council has been considering it for more than a month and a half and has not been able to come to any conclusion.
Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk, famous for his openly boorish statements addressed to German leaders, has already scolded Berlin for delays in the supply of weapons. Melnyk believes that Germany is letting Ukraine down. Polish President Andrzej Duda also criticized Berlin, as Germany promised Poland to transfer new Leopard tanks to replace Soviet-made tanks sent to Ukraine, but it never fulfilled this promise. Later, the German press explained this by the fact that Poland demanded the latest tanks, but Germany itself does not have them yet, and the old tanks that Berlin planned to send to Warsaw are not satisfied with the Polish leadership.
Greece is another important supplier of weapons to Ukraine. Recently, Athens boasted that it is in one of the leading places in terms of the volume of arms supplied to Ukraine. So, Greece has transferred or is going to transfer to Ukraine 122 BMP-1, 20 thousand AK-47 assault rifles, 60 FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS, 3.2 million rounds of 7.62 mm caliber, 2.1 thousand 122-mm rockets, 15 thousand 73-mm shells and so on.
Once Russian officers fought for the independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire, and now the Greek government supplies weapons to Russia's enemies. Now Greece has a certain number of Soviet and Russian-made weapons. For example, Greece has Soviet tanks, but Athens does not want to send them to Ukraine until Germany sends at least 50 Marder infantry fighting vehicles instead of these tanks.
The Greek leadership does not want to squander weapons too much, since the country is constantly ready for a conflict with Turkey, which cannot be excluded, although both Athens and Ankara are members of the same military-political bloc of NATO.
Thus, despite the declared readiness of European leaders to help Ukraine, in reality, arms supplies face a number of obstacles. Not all of them can be overcome: for example, if Germany does not have new Leopard tanks, then they will not appear in the near future, regardless of the statements of the Polish president. And in terms of timing: it is not very clear whether Ukraine will need weapons at all in the winter of 2022-2023, or its own will end by that time. Perhaps European countries are deliberately dragging their feet, waiting for what the coming day will bring.
