ATHENS — In an about-face that underscores the rapidly changing defense posture of Europe, Germany will begin supplying tanks to Ukraine. 

The German arms manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann will be given the green light to sell to Ukraine reconditioned Cheetah anti-aircraft tanks from German armed forces stocks, the German newspaper Bild reports.

It is a sharp turnaround for a country that has resisted much entrenchment in the Ukraine war, whether in the form of slapping an embargo on Russian gas and oil imports or by delivering heavier weapons to Ukraine. Many other countries have done so, including America and Great Britain. 

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had come under mounting pressure to take action in recent days as his country’s efforts to help Ukraine’s counteroffensives against Russia have been widely seen as falling short of President Zelensky’s entreaties to give more in the way of weapons. Hence, part of one Bild headline, “Scholz Buckles.”

The chancellor’s Social Democratic Party is set to table a motion before the Bundestag, expected to pass quickly, to release the tanks. Earlier, the leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, requested that the Bundestag vote on the immediate delivery of battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery to Ukraine. The momentum will likely tamp down some of the pressure that has been cooking in Mr. Scholz’s coalition government.

Germany’s defense minister, Christine Lambrecht, said that the tanks, which are said to number in the double digits, would be supplied from the American base at Ramstein. According to the Telegraph, Ms. Lambrecht also said that Ukrainian soldiers are now being trained in artillery systems on German soil. 

That newspaper also reported that an order of 100 Marder infantry fighting vehicles could also be approved as part of the tranche of donations from Berlin, while German newspaper Die Welt reported that the German defense firm Rheinmetal has requested to export 88 old Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

In addition, at a meeting of officials from about 40 countries convened by the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, at Ramstein Air Base today, Germany announced it had cleared the way for delivery of Gepard anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine. Mr. Austin said that more help for Ukraine was on the way.

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Defense has also wanted to supply Ukraine with 35mm ammunition that is produced in Switzerland by the German manufacturer Rheinmetall, but the Swiss have blocked it from doing so. 

Bild reports that Switzerland has one of the strictest end-use clauses in the world stipulating that weapons made in Switzerland may not be passed on to other countries. Deliveries to countries that are involved in an “internal or international armed conflict” are prohibited for reasons of neutrality, the Swiss Ministry of Economic Affairs said.