<p>This article examines the January 2023 dispute between the American and German Governments about the donation of main battle tanks (MBTs), which included the enabling of other states holding stocks of German-made MBTs, to the Government of Ukraine. The ‘freeing of the Leopards’ only occurred after the American Government agreed to donate some of its tanks as the German Government would not donate or permit the donation of Leopards owned by others without a concomitant American donation. What drove this was the need to share the risks inherent with potential escalation. Risk-sharing is a dimension of burden-sharing that is seldom examined, and considerations over risk led to a role reversal. Instead of being exhorted to do more, it was the one doing the exhorting. The case highlights that this seldom-examined dimension of burden-sharing has at least some explanatory power.</p>