Nicolas Cinquini

the saga of the Western Panzerkampfwagen in Ukraine

• Overture

A little over 80 years ago, in 1941, under the leadership of Germany, Europe invaded the Soviet Union. In June 1942, Ukraine was the rear base of a Nazi offensive toward the Caucasus and Volga river, but in January 1943, the annihilation of Friedrich Paulus’ 6. Armee at Stalingrad reversed the tide of WW2. The last Nazi offensive, in July, triggered around Kursk the largest tank battle in history and a new Soviet victory. The Red Army liberated Kiev in November 1943 and seized Berlin in May 1945

Lviv is in western Ukraine the epicenter of a Nazi legacy since WW2. Late 2013, an economical dispute with the European Union led, in western Ukraine and Kiev, to a pro-Europe uprising against the legal government. With the help of Nazi political organizations from Lviv and likely, foreign provocative gunmen, NATO achieved a rightist coup in February 2014. Later, Russian-speaking residents of Crimea and Donbass have risen up against the Russophobia of the new authorities, which called them terrorists, cracked down on them with the loyal members of the armed forces and the same Nazi militants, legalized meanwhile as paramilitaries. That was the outbreak of war in Donbass. NATO countries are offering their military support to Ukraine since the beginning. Galvanized, the successive Ukrainian governments did not seriously negotiate, have not implemented Minsk peace agreements. Former German Kanzlerin, Angela Merkel confessed to der Zeit on December 7, 2022

2014 Minsk agreement was an attempt to buy Ukraine time. It has used this time to strengthen itself, as can be seen today

France and Germany were hypocritical when they sponsored an agreement which was supposed to cease fire and bring peace. The Western goal was actually to gain time, in order for NATO to reinforce the military power of the Ukrainian Nazi deep State. Ukraine has carried on with the terrorist shelling of civilians and on February 24, 2022, Russia has started a special military operation, in order to liberate Donbass, demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. That is the proxy war that NATO was seeking. Why ? In order to preserve a hegemony on the decline if not already an illusion, against Russia, China and most of the wide world, for a new world order against a multipolar one, the US and their European vassals are regarding that war as an opportunity of strategic victory. Their wet dream is to dismember Russia and subdue China

Among other symbolic references to Nazism and German army during WW2, the Ukrainian military vehicles are displaying a white cross since September 2022

The Balkenkreuz [bar cross] was the common sign on German Panzer on September 1, 1939, when began the invasion of Poland and WW2. The symbol later evolved and remained until 1945

Russia is enforcing an attrition strategy. The operations are a carnage for the Ukrainian forces. While the Ukrainian artillery is firing around 6,000 shells a day all over the front line, the Russian consumption may raise to 50,000, has reminded late November 2022 a senior anonymous NATO official. In view of the Russian air supremacy, tactical, operational and strategic strikes on military targets, despite the massive involvement of Western intelligence, the Ukrainian casualties are obviously far higher

According to a Russian mathematical model, the Ukrainian military fatalities since February 24 are currently above 150,000. On November 30, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, confirmed that the death toll was already above 100,000. The fatalities are not restricted to the Ukrainian cannon fodder, Western mercenaries are also killed in the ranks of that Atlanticist army

Lock of the Atlanticist defense system in the still occupied part of Donbass, Bakhmut, also called Artemovsk, is a hot spot, where the Ukrainian reserves are currently sacrificed

For Wagner private military company (PMC), a major Russian force involved so far in the area, Yevgeny Prigozhin has already stated on November 26, 2022

Bakhmut is a large, well-fortified area with roads, suburbs, and water barriers. The Ukrainian army is well-prepared and offers decent resistance. Our task is not Bakhmut itself, but the attrition of the Ukrainian army to reduce its combat potential, which is why this operation has been dubbed the ‘Bakhmut meat grinder.’ In this regard, do not run ahead of the locomotive, we will let you know, happiness loves silence

In the hope of turning the tide in 2023, Ukraine should receive Western armored fighting vehicles (AFV), 59 US infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) Bradley, 40 German IFV Marder and 30 French AMX-10 RC, which are not tanks, despite their 105 mm gun, but old armored recce vehicles

On January 11, 2023, Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Lviv, western Ukraine, his counterparts from Lithuania and Poland, Gitanas Nausėda and Andrzej Duda. Together, they decided to reinforce in Ukraine the defense of the so-called Euro-Atlantic coalition. Poland would transfer a company of German-made Leopard tanks

In the wake, the UK has announced the delivery of 14 Challenger tanks. But in matter of Leopards, Poland and the other east European good wills need that Germany allows their export.

German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that in a phone call with US president Joe Biden on January 17, Kanzler Olaf Scholz has claimed to be ready to deliver Leopards to Ukraine, but on one condition : if the US in turn delivered Abrams tanks. On January 19, der Bundestag debated the delivery of Panzer to Ukraine. Member of parliament Peter Bystron, AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany, right-wing), stated

German Panzer against Russia in Ukraine ? By the way, you already tried that with the Melnyks and Banderas [Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian Nazi leader during WW2] and what is the result ? Unspeakable suffering, millions of dead on both sides and in the end, Russian tanks here in Berlin !

He added

The conflict in Ukraine cannot be solved with Panzer, only with diplomacy […] Only the US armaments companies benefit from arms deliveries […] The majority of the German people reject arms deliveries to Ukraine. The traffic light government [red-green] should finally start conducting politics in the interests of the German people

A number of parties were opposing the transfer and the decision was postponed. Meanwhile, the Russian regular forces started attacking in the south, are threatening Orekhovsky, 65 km southeast of Ukrainian-occupied Zaporojie, on the left bank of Dnieper river. If confirmed and successful, such an offensive could lead to the destruction of the Atlanticist forces east of the river

Andriy Melnyk is the previous ambassador to Germany, a revisionist and an apologist of his national hero, Ukrainian Nazi war criminal Stepan Bandera. On November 18, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed him deputy foreign affairs minister. On January 20, 2023, Melnyk called for a tank coalition in Ukraine

Representatives of the Atlanticist coalition, the US, Ukraine and their auxiliaries, met the same day in the US military base in Ramstein, Germany, but did not announce the delivery of Leopard or Abrams tanks

According to dem Spiegel, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND, German intelligence) was then assessing that the Atlanticist forces were losing three-digit numbers of soldiers every day around Bakhmut.

On January 21, a Wagner fighter proudly displayed his trophies, including the chevrons that he had seized in Bakhmut area, on demilitarized foreign mercenaries from Canada, Georgia, Italy, Turkey, the UK and US

In the Ostgebiete [eastern territories] on January 23, the psychodrama went on when Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated

We will apply for such consent from Germany, but this is a secondary topic. Even if we do not get this consent at the end, as part of a small coalition, even if the Germans would not be in this coalition, we will still hand over our tanks [German Leopards] together with others to Ukraine. The condition for us at the moment is to build at least a just small coalition of States […] in Western Europe […]

The campaign #FreeTheLeopards was trending on social networks, with involvement of characters like Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin

and German stylist Frank Peter Wild, who was advocating for a while on Instagram, from his elevator in Berlin

Here was the distribution of Leopard Panzerkampfwagen across Europe on January 23, 2023

The French press may be the worst coterie worldwide of atavistic lackeys. The State is subsidizing them all. Their reports about the prospects of tanks delivery to Ukraine are hilarious. The public propaganda channel franceinfo asks on January 24

War in Ukraine: why does Germany have control over Poland’s [German] tanks ?

But the right-wing Point states

It would not be a good idea to deliver [French] Leclerc tanks to Ukraine

The suspense ends the same day, when according to dem Spiegel and other German outlets, Kanzler Olaf Scholz has agreed to send German Panzerkampfwagen to Ukraine. The historians will measure the part of the submission to the US and that of a pure German neurosis

My brief forecast : the Western tanks are carrying four crew members, require training, will not be soon on the front line. A few dozens will not turn the tide in Ukraine, but will be destroyed. According to the Russian defense ministry, the Atlanticist forces have already lost more than 7,600 tanks and other AFVs in 11 months, since February 24, 2022. The spectacle of the combustion on the battlefield of Western tanks may have a larger psychological and political impact than their military influence

• January 25, 2023

The government confirms that Germany will send 14 Leopards to Ukraine. The plan is to form two battalions, that is about 88 tanks, with contribution of other countries. New German defense minister, Boris Pistorius predicts that these formations may reach the front line in about three months, that is early May.

Poland has already announced the delivery of a company, that is 14 vehicles. Germany has managed to convince the US, which will deliver 31 Abrams, confirms Joe Biden. 14 British Challengers should be also part of the 88 Western Panzerkampfwagen ultimately engaged in Ukraine. 75% of mankind are eager to watch their wrecks on the battlefield. Government by grocers is a curse.

For a wide majority of Russians, the near involvement of Western tanks is a reminder of the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Europe. Some channels are giving advice on how to burn the new German Panzerkampfwagen

Ukraine needs now crew members and more broadly, a new batch of cannon fodder. I guess some recruits were volunteer in March 2022, but the most are likely dead, now. The scenes of forced mobilization are increasingly cruel. An amateur video surfaces from Cherkasy. The woman has attempted to record the abduction of the man

• January 26, 2023

The first rewards are offered on social networks. One million rubles for the first captured Panzerkampfwagen, the half for the first destroyed one

The same day, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh states

we just don’t have these tanks [Abrams M1A2] available in excess in our US stocks

That is why the vehicles for Ukraine shall be manufactured. According to Politico, the sole plant is producing 12 machines per month, is overbooked for Taiwan and Poland, which is eager to replace its 250 T-72 already delivered to Ukraine.

• January 27, 2023

The near shipment of German Panzerkampfwagen to Ukraine makes people think in Charlottenburg, West Berlin

• January 29, 2023

The supposed Ukrainian crew members of British Challenger tanks have arrived in the UK for training

• February 3, 2023

Berlin has approved their exportation, Rheinmetall company plans to sell 88 Leopard I (one) to Ukraine for €100 million. The tank entered service in 1965. The version should be 1A5, an improvement in 1987, but the gun is still 105 mm and the armor is feeble. The Westerners have no regard for the Ukrainian cannon fodder

• February 7, 2023

German defense minister Boris Pistorius (left) visits Kiev, has brought the model of a Leopard 2 to Oleksii Reznikov, who is still his counterpart for a few days. Reznikov is falling because of a corruption scandal within his ministry. Surprising. The prosecution of a corruption case is surprising in Ukraine

Meanwhile, Ukrainian formations are training at Belarus border, are displaying their Balkenkreuze

• February 9, 2023

Handelsblatt has interviewed Armin Papperger, Rheinmetall CEO. The German company is talking to Kyiv about exporting the Panther […] in 15 to 18 months. Still under development, the KT (Kettenfahrzeug [tracked vehicle]) 51 Panther is based on the hull of the Leopard 2A4, with a new turret, a 130 mm gun and its auto-loader

The Panzerkampfwagen [armored fighting car] V Panther was intended to counter the Soviet T-34, was baptized in Kursk vicinity in July 1943, during the largest tank battle in history, a Soviet victory and a defeat for Nazi Europe

The disgrace is that so many Germans have forgotten so quickly that they are most offspring of Nazis. If modern Germany was a respectable country, its leaders would consider the legitimate demands of Russia, would strive to bring peace in such a situation, would not send Panzer.

• February 10, 2023

Public radio station Deutschlandfunk broadcasts the interview of 96-year-old Joachim Höppner, who was tank gunner within the Wehrmacht, 2. Panzerdivision, was involved in the battle of the Bulge, from December 1944 to January 1945, was later taken prisoner on the east front and detained in Soviet Ukraine. The interview provokes the ire of Andriy Melnyk and BILD, a grassroots reactionary tabloid for German rednecks. Melnyk is the current deputy foreign affairs minister in Ukraine, a revisionist and an ardent thurifer of Stepan Bandera, the Ukrainian Nazi leader during WW2.

Höppner has become paficist, states about Panzerkampfwagen shipment to Ukraine

What are these heavy weapons which are being supplied ? What are the people who make such decisions thinking about ? You can’t solve any problems with weapons

BILD trolls hard, attacks Höppner and Deutschlandfunk over the military experience of the first, veteran within the Wehrmacht, but is supporting a modern Ukrainian State who is usually paying tribute to the Ukrainian SS and the UPA, a Nazi paramilitary formation during WW2. Its editorial line is for the Germans, the most in West Germany, who under the US umbrella, did not achieve their grieve about the German Nazi defeat against Soviet Union, which scored 80% of the German military losses during WW2. BILD is the prominent illustration of a German neurosis. How dumm or rather neurotic are such Germans, who become mad when Russia is conducting a special military operation in Donbass and Ukraine, but duck when the US sabotage Nord Stream.

• February 17, 2023

The Washington Post is a US militant outlet, which is expressing a strong support to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Ukraine. On February 14, Michael de Adder has drawn an interesting cartoon. The NATO team, no specific country, is hurrying up to prepare Ukraine for a spring offensive. And the tank is a German Leopard

But reality is more difficult. On January 24, the German government has agreed to deliver them and to allow their export by customers. Most of these leaders are exalted blabbermouths and soon, the announcements added up to dozens machines from several European countries. Three weeks later, the fever is gone. Der Spiegel has interviewed Boris Pistorius, the German defense minister. Germany should transfer 14 Leopard 2A6 and Portugal, three. Older versions and even archaic Leopards 1 could be delivered, but many of these tanks are in poor condition and need repairs. I stress that one German demand for the agreement was the shipment of US Abrams, but it could be postponed indefinitely.

• February 24, 2023

The Polish prime minister announces that the first batch of Polish tanks, already transferred to Ukraine, is including four Leopard 2. In the wake, the German defense ministry adds that Germany will send four additional ones. Platoon by platoon ? Warfare or communication ? Please hurry up, gentlemen, you can hardly imagine how the wide world is eager to watch them… in action

The Ukrainian government confirms later with photos the Polish delivery. The machines are an old version, Leopard 2A4

As usual in Ukraine, here in Odessa, volunteers are rushing to become crew members of the new tanks and defend democracy. The two men in military fatigues are recruitment officers. In black uniforms, two police officers watch the abduction

In the previous night, a damaged tank has been set up in front of the Russian embassy, on Unter de Linden avenue, Berlin. An art performance, that the administrative court had authorized in October. The T-72 has come from a museum in Kiev, was allegedly Russian, would have been seized during the special military operation. Still that German neurosis, I guess

I really love this splendid picture in May 1945 of a victorious T-34, in front of the Brandenburger Tor

• February 25, 2023

The organizers were hardly expecting how their propaganda operation is hijacked in front of the Russian embassy. While other demonstrators are gathering a few hundreds meters away, in front of the Branderburger Tor, Berliners are laying hundreds red flowers on the Russian tank, in protest to the Western military support, which is protracting the Atlanticist proxy war in Ukraine, despite a Chinese peace plan.

• February 26, 2023

Yevgeny Prigozhin states that according to intelligence, the Atlanticist command is sending the Leopards 2A4, four machines, one platoon, to Chasov Yar, a town about 15 km west of Bakhmut, a city that the Russian forces have caught in a vice.

I hope so, did not expect it.

The alternative is that the Panzerkampfwagen are game changers or they are not. In the first case, engagement by dropper will dilute them on the battlefield. In both cases, the pictures of destroyed machines will be a propaganda victory for Russia, while various countries are still wondering if they will deliver Western tanks.

never interrupt an enemy who is making a mistake

has said Corsican general Napoleone Buonaparte.

• March 6, 2023

No Western Panzerkampfwagen has been committed so far in the fighting, which have reached the outskirts of Chasov Yar, where a Ukrainian T-64 burns

• March 13, 2023

Ukrainian service members wrapped up a four-week training near Zaragoza

Spain has schooled 40 crew members and 15 mechanics, should deliver six Leopard 2A4.

• March 20, 2023

Annabel Goldie is Minister of State for Defense, a subordinate of defense minister Ben Wallace. She answers a question on the site of the parliament and confirms that the UK would send to Ukraine depleted uranium (DU) armor piercing rounds with the Challenger tanks

During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Anglo-Saxon troops shot between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of DU munitions. Their debris are chemically and radiologically toxic for their users and later, for the population of the former battlefield.

• March 21, 2023

An amateur video surfaces on social networks, is showing a Leopard 2A4, allegedly in Ukraine or Donbass

• March 22, 2023

The Daily Mail explains to its readers what are the DU armor piercing rounds

• March 27, 2023

The Ukrainian defense ministry publishes a photo where Oleksii Reznikov stands in front of Western vehicles

From the left, the second one is a US Stryker Interim Armored Vehicle (IAV), the third, a British Challenger tank and the fourth, a German Marder Schützenpanzer.

• March 31, 2023

Ukraine has received so far several dozen Western heavy armored vehicles, Panzer and infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) like German Marders, is about to receive US Bradleys. None has been engaged in fighting. They are gathered in the prospects of a counteroffensive, which may begin in April.

Its goals could be the rescue of Bakhmut garrison or to the south, the Russian continental lines of communication to Crimea.

• April 11, 2023

A leak of classified documents from the Pentagon has wrecked havoc within the US intelligence community. They look authentic and as Big Serge writes, are a Russian nesting doll of embarrassment

First of all, they are showing how in this case, the US intelligence is relying on open sources (OSINT), because Ukraine simply does not share its data. The known facts are ascertaining that the country is facing a critical shortage of artillery and air defense ammunition, a deficit that the West is unable to bridge.

Besides, Ukraine is planning a spring offensive, that 12 brigades should carry out. NATO is equipping nine of them, which appear understrengthed, according to Western standards, will still be ill trained by late April.

Big Serge concludes

To salvage the situation, Kiev must place its hopes on one desperate dice roll with a mechanized attack package comprised of half-strength brigades wielding a disparate inventory of different vehicles and systems. This Frankenstein’s monster of armies – sewn together with a bevy of different tanks, IFVs, APCs, and artillery systems drawn from all corners of the NATO alliance, will likely be asked to smash through the heavily fortified and robustly manned Russian lines in the south, where it will be pulverized and become only so much more mulch for the Pontic Steppe

• April 13, 2023

The fighting are ongoing in Bakhmut, where Wagner fires a Fagot antitank guided missile (ATGM), in this splendid photo from RIA Novosti

In a video from Evgeny Poddubny’s team, a Russian T-90 is firing

• April 17, 2023

On social networks, Poles are sharing the photos of US made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), with Ukrainian camouflage but no 25 mm gun

Another one surfaces, is allegedly showing the aftermath of an accident on a training ground in Poland. Two facts are undeniable : the damage tank is a Leopard 2A4 and the two men are wearing Ukrainian uniforms

• April 19, 2023

A photo surfaces on social networks, allegedly from members of the Ukrainian 47th assault brigade, is showing modernized T-55 tanks from Slovenia and US Bradley IFVs

From a TV set, Ukrainian unter-defense minister Hanna Maliar states that the counteroffensive has already begun, along four axes, Bakhmut, Marinka, Avdiivka and Liman, all in Donetsk People’s Republic, Donbass, Russia. She adds however that no offensive actions are conducted, but a set of strategic measures. Indeed, the Russian fighters have noticed nothing so far

NATO is eager, despite the clear Ukrainian incapacity to conduct offensives with success. In the evening, Moscow time, the US announces an umpteenth military package, artillery ammunition. That proxy war is such a crime, such a caricature of the West, that it will be likely the end of the Western hegemony. The wide world is disgusted.

• May 13, 2023

In Khmelnytskyi, western Ukraine, about 325 km southwest of Kiev, Russian cruise missiles or/and drones destroy an ammunition depot. Secondary explosions and blaze are tremendous. At 4:52 am, local time, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) records 3.4 magnitude shocks northwest of the city

When will we finally stop putting all the eggs in one basket ?

comments Yuri Kasyanov, a former Ukrainian official. The targeted facility was concealing a huge amount of ammunition and high-tech military equipment from NATO countries.

The day after, the firefighters will still be using robots to extinguish the destroyed ammunition depot. The European radioactivity monitoring will clearly be showing a rise of gamma dose rate in Khmelnytskyi since May 12

If Russia used nuclear ammunition, the radiation would start rising on May 13, not on May 12. Ukrainian journalist and member of Svoboda [liberty], a Nazi political party, Ihor Mosiychuk will sound the alarm, advise to take children away from the epicenters of the explosions.

A dirty bomb is combining radioactive material with conventional explosive, in order to disperse the former. Through the stockpile in Khmelnytskyi of British DUAP rounds (cf. supra, March 20), Ukraine has likely and unintentionally made its own dirty bomb.

• May 18, 2023

A moving spectacle. Who has imagined one year ago what we are now contemplating : the wreck of an armored vehicle, came from a declining but arrogant West, is lying in Bakhmut, Donetsk People’s Republic, Donbass, Russia, the current critical point of a proxy war that NATO is waging in that region

A video surfaces on May 18, 2023, is showing a damage British Spartan armored personnel carrier (APC), that the defeated Atlanticist forces have abandoned in the battered city.

• May 20, 2023

Wo sind die Panzer ?

Except some APCs, mostly destroyed or seized, no other Western armored vehicles, no Panzekampfwagen, have been involved so far on the battlefield. At 3:50 pm, local time, one year after another liberation, the surrender in Mariupol of Nazi Azov regiment, Yevgeny Prigozhin announces that the Russian forces have achieved a complete victory in Bakhmut, Donetsk People’s Republic, Donbass, Russia. No Atlanticist fighter remains alive in the city

I do not think that a few dozen Western tanks would turn the tide in Donbass or Ukraine. But the spectacle of their combustion may have a larger psychological and political impact than their military influence. That is the reason why failing a real counter-offensive so far, they have not been involved. Because the way the Atlanticist forces have been bled since August 2022, in the trap of Bakhmut meat grinder, may have ruined the opportunities for such a counter-offensive.

• May 25, 2023

Remake in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, of what happened in Berlin, Germany, on February 25. In partnership with the Ukrainian authorities, the municipality displays a Russian damaged T-72 tank in the city. But people are later coming to lay flowers on the vehicle and demonstrate against the military support to Ukraine

The mayor is 57-year-old Femke Halsema (left), member of GroenLinks [green left], the same political affiliation than Annalena Baerbock, the cataclysmic 42-year-old German foreign affairs minister.

• Music