When Annalena Baerbock arrived at the Council of EU Foreign Ministers on Monday morning, the topic of tanks came up again.

"At the moment the question has not yet been asked, but if we were asked, we would not stand in the way," the foreign minister had previously told French television broadcaster LCI on the Leopard 2 export permits.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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But who was she speaking for: for her party, the Greens, for the Federal Foreign Office or for the entire federal government, from which nothing like this had been heard before?

Baerbock dodged the question.

You have to do everything "to defend Ukraine, so that Ukraine wins," she said in general terms - and then turned on her heel before the next probing demand overtook her.

So the puzzles about Germany continued in Brussels.

The three foreign ministers of the Baltic states again called on Berlin to deliver tanks, as they had done in coordinated tweets over the weekend.

Edgars Rinkevics from Latvia said there were "no good arguments" why Ukraine could not be supplied with main battle tanks now.

"Germany is a motor of Europe," seconded Urmas Reinsalu from Estonia, "that gives rise to a special responsibility." Russia will "continue to terrorize us verbally and try to intimidate us," but we still have to do "what is our obligation in a genocidal war “.

Baltic States put pressure on

The Lithuanian Gabrielius Landsbergis spoke at length about the topic of fear: "I believe that we must overcome the fear of defeating Russia." It was an attempt to address the hesitation of the federal government, especially the chancellor and his SPD, from a depth psychological point of view.

In fact, since the beginning of the war, Olaf Scholz has avoided saying that Russia must be defeated.

He only says that Ukraine must not lose.

He and others combine this with references to the dangers of an escalation of the war.

"If we accept that Russia can and must lose to avoid future wars," countered the Lithuanian foreign minister, "then we can deliver all the weapons that Ukraine needs."

He combined this with an excursion into the history of his country.

When Lithuania struggled for independence in 1990, Western friends were so worried about the collapse of the Soviet Union "that they wanted to stop us".

Her argument back then:

That would be Gorbachev's end and thus the end of the opening.

According to Landsbergis, however, this did not stop them and they are now standing in Brussels as a sign of the historic victory as a member of the EU.

The Soviet Union was broken, but another reformer, Yeltsin, followed Gorbatshow.

500 million euros for arms deliveries to Ukraine

Strictly speaking, the issue of tanks was not on the ministers' agenda.

Rather, it was about a new tranche of 500 million euros to subsidize arms deliveries to Kyiv, about the preparation of further sanctions against Russia and how the country can be held legally accountable for its war of aggression.

Baerbock had committed to this topic a week earlier in a keynote speech in The Hague: to a hybrid tribunal that should take place according to Ukrainian criminal law and international procedural rules, and in another country, obviously in The Hague itself impression that she had discussed this with the Ukrainian foreign minister.

In any case, she had not coordinated with her colleagues from the EU countries, as became clear on Monday.

Not a foreign minister publicly supported her move.

Instead, a number advocated a different route: a “true” international special tribunal, set up by the United Nations and governed solely by international law.

This is what the representatives of France, Belgium, Lithuania and Estonia said.

"We are considering the possibility of creating an ad hoc jurisdiction with other states," said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who has the "necessary legitimacy" and can hold the Russian leadership accountable "up to the highest level". .

That would not be possible according to Baerbock's proposal.

The Russian president, prime minister and foreign minister could not be charged while in office because they enjoy immunity from Ukraine.

This could only be overturned through the United Nations - if not through the Security Council, where Russia can veto, then through a widely supported resolution of the UN General Assembly, which would appoint a special tribunal.

However, the federal government does not want to go down this path because it does not expect the necessary support from the states.

It is the "more realistic" approach, it is explained.

France, which is itself a member of the Security Council, has a different assessment here.

This debate will continue for a while before the EU states agree on a common line.

This also applies to the tenth package of sanctions, which is now being worked on.

It is scheduled to be ready by the first anniversary of the start of the war, February 24th.

Most recently, the states had set a price limit for Russian crude oil, which their transport companies and insurers must adhere to when they deliver to third countries.

The same debate is now taking place over refined products such as gasoline and heating oil, with differing views on the depth of market intervention.

It was also unclear on Monday whether the ministers would approve further arms aid for Kyiv.

In the preparatory bodies, Hungary had entered its reservation without giving reasons for its content.

It was assumed that Budapest wanted to build up pressure to remove some Russians from the sanctions list.