Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this Thursday urged Germany to allow the delivery of Western war tanks, such as the ‘Leopard 2’, to Ukraine, assuring that several European countries, including Portugal, are available to to deliver them.
“Many countries are willing to supply tanks to us, they are motivated and support us, but they are waiting for the relevant documents from the countries that have the right to give permission (…) We are all waiting for the permission of the country [fabricante] who owns the rights to the respective licenses”said the Ukrainian head of state, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
Zelensky specifically mentioned Portugal, Spain, Poland and Finland as countries willing to send war tanks, some of them “to a small number of the tanks they have”.
At a press conference in Kiev with European Council President Charles Michel, the Ukrainian president acknowledged that this is a “very delicate” issue, which “depends on many reasons” and not just on “Ukraine’s will”.
Hours earlier, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov issued a joint statement calling on “the states that employ Leopard 2 tanks, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey”, to send them to Ukrainian soil.
“We pledge to use these weapons responsibly and exclusively to protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine within our internationally recognized borders”said the rulers.
“We call on all these and all other countries that have sufficient capabilities to join the initiative to form an international coalition of tanks in support of Ukraine and to make their practical contributions to this cause. We urge urges you to do so on behalf of the millions of peaceful citizens of Ukraine, who will remain in mortal danger from Russia, an aggressor state and a terrorist state, if the armed forces of Ukraine do not receive the necessary reinforcements in time. the crimes it commits do not reach their lands and homes”wrote Kuleba and Reznikov.
Supplying Western war tanks such as the German ‘Leopard 2’ will be one of the topics of discussion this Friday at the meeting of the Defense Contact Group of Ukraine, in Ramstein, Germany.
Asked about the possibility of supplying tanks to Ukraine, a Defense Ministry source told the Lusa agency that Defense Minister Helena Carreiras will participate in the meeting of the Defense Contact Group and that only after the meeting between partners and allies then the next steps in support of Kiev will be announced.
Any shipment of German-made armored vehicles to a third country must be approved by the government in Berlin, but Germany has so far refused to authorize their delivery to Kiev, with the intention that the decision will be negotiated with the Allies. be taken.
Regarding the Ramstein meeting, the Ukrainian president underlined this Thursday that issues that are “priorities” for Kiev at the moment will be addressed, because “the outcome of the battle depends on the decisions taken”, stressing that expectations of his government are “positive” about this.
Germany is under strong pressure from several of its allies to supply Kiev Leopard 2 tanks, having already supplied Gepard-type armored vehicles (high-tech German anti-aircraft fighting vehicles) and committed to sending Marder (vehicles of infantry) combat aircraft from Germany, used in the Cold War), while it began shipping Patriot system batteries to Poland on Monday.
The UK has already pledged 14 Challenger 2 heavy tanks and 600 Brimstone missiles, and Poland says it is ready to send 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks if Berlin allows them to be sent to Ukraine.
The United States has already supplied Ukraine with Bradley main battle tanks and will continue to send military equipment to Kiev’s armed forces.
The Bradleys are lighter armored main battle tanks with a smaller gun, typically 25mm compared to the 120mm Abrams, which the US deems inappropriate for the Ukraine conflict.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has so far led to the flight of more than 14 million people — 6.5 million internally displaced persons and nearly eight million to European countries — according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
Currently, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russian security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and Russia political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented 7,031 dead civilians and 11,327 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, underlining that these numbers are far below the real ones.
Source: DN
