The claim

Apparently a German tank slipped off a truck on a highway in Austria on its way to Ukraine. Such a transport would violate Austria's neutrality.

Our conclusion

It wasn't a German tank that slipped off a truck, but rather a Polish off-road vehicle. The vehicle was not on its way to Ukraine, but to the southern flank of the NATO alliance. Such transports must be approved, but do not violate Austria's neutrality.

At the beginning of May, a claim was circulating on Facebook that a truck carrying a heavy battle tank was driving through Austria. However, the tank slipped off the truck due to poor fastening and blocked the highway for hours. This in itself would be bad, but supposedly such a transport is also illegal and violates Austria's neutrality, but " no keyboard hooker " reports about it.
But that may also be because almost nothing in the description is true.

What was claimed

The claim has been spread as a longer text since May 6th:

The claim about a German
The claim about a German tank in Austria, source: Facebook

Accordingly, a semi-trailer truck coming from Germany drove through Austria towards Ukraine. However, the low-loader was poorly secured in Germany and a heavy battle tank fell down. The transport also violated Austrian neutrality.

What is actually seen

When looking at the news from May 6th and earlier, you can actually find an event that was probably the trigger for the spread text: On May 4th, the ORF (see HERE ) reported on a blocked highway due to a military vehicle driven by a heavy transport truck slipped:

Media report on military transport
Media report on military transport, source: ORF

Accordingly, the following happened:

  • A civilian truck was loading a Polish army off-road vehicle
  • The off-road vehicle slipped when the brakes were applied
  • The 17-ton military vehicle had to be repositioned using special cranes
  • The motorway was therefore only accessible to a limited extent for two and a half hours
  • The Polish vehicle was transported as part of a NATO troop deployment to the alliance's southern flank, AFP learned

This did not violate Austria's neutrality

According to Michael Bauer from the Austrian Ministry of Defense, Germany and France are transporting their military aid for Ukraine to Poland and from there to the Polish-Ukrainian border. Such military transports from third countries are not unusual.

Troop Residence Act regulates the transit and export of foreign armed forces - and such transits occur on average 20 times a day. Neutrality is only violated when one of the countries is at war, but neither NATO nor Poland are at war.

Conclusion

There is no violation of the constitution. It was not a German tank, but a Polish off-road vehicle that slipped off the low loader. It was not transported to Ukraine, but rather to the alliance's southern flank as part of NATO troop deployments. Such transports from third countries through Austria take place around 20 times a day, must be approved and do not violate Austrian neutrality.

More detailed information from our colleagues at AFP (see HERE ).

Article image: Pixabay/Pexels
Also interesting:

Fake news about the Ukraine war circulates online every day.
Like the current false report that Ukrainians in Ingolstadt are distributing poisoned candies to pro-Russian youth. How could the hoax spread so quickly? Fake news about the Ukraine war: Poisoned sweets in Ingolstadt


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