Poland will ask Germany for permission to send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday.
The Polish prime minister did not specify when the request would be made, but said that Poland is forming a coalition of countries that are ready to send Leopard tanks.
Even if there is no permission from Germany, Warsaw will make its own decisions, Morawiecki stressed, without elaborating.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told French television station LCI on Sunday that Poland has not formally asked for Berlin’s approval to ship some of its German-made Leopards, though she added that Germany will not be an obstacle. .
The Polish prime minister said Germany’s position to “put pressure on makes sense”, considering the German minister’s words a “sparkle of hope” that Germany can participate in the coalition.
The issue is sending German-made Leopard 02 tanks to help Ukrainian troops, which Berlin has resisted. Last week it was impossible to unlock the shipment of these combat vehicles during a meeting of NATO member states in Ramstein, Germany.
Berlin has been pressured by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to authorize the shipment of these tanks and by Washington, as well as by most of the EU and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) countries. On the other hand, Moscow has already left warnings that the supply of tanks could be seen by the Kremlin as an escalation of tensions.
The foreign ministers of the member states of the European Union (EU) are meeting today in Brussels to discuss support for Ukraine, among other issues.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which started almost a year ago, remains the dominant topic at EU foreign ministers’ meetings and the first meeting in 2023 will be no exception. On the table is the support that Member States have given kyiv for almost a year and how to improve it in the future.
Source: TSF
