SEEON (dpa-AFX) - The CSU in the Bundestag has called on the traffic light coalition to supply Ukraine with Leopard I and II main battle tanks in addition to infantry fighting vehicles. The delivery of the Marder infantry fighting vehicles, which has now been decided, is one thing, CSU state group leader Alexander Dobrindt said Friday at the start of a closed-door meeting in the Bavarian monastery of Seeon. "But the second step must also come." He said Germany must also support Ukraine's right to self-defense with Leopard deliveries - and regardless of whether or not allied states do the same.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) would have the chance here to act himself and offer the Leopard, said Dobrindt, who again accused Scholz of hesitancy. "It's always the same pattern: people wait too long - until a point in time when politically they can't do anything else. And only then do you act. I believe that in Europe, German leadership is rightly understood to mean something different." The Leopard I could be supplied by the defense industry from its stocks, the more modern Leopard II by the Bundeswehr from its depots.

Dobrindt also pleaded for Ukrainian soldiers to be trained on both tanks right now. "The sooner, the better," he said.

After a long wait, the German government had decided to also supply Ukraine with Marder infantry fighting vehicles. They are to be given to the country attacked by Russia in the first three months of this year. It is about 40 copies, as government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in Berlin on Friday./sk/DP/ngu