The Polish government has formally asked Germany for authorization to send “Leopard” tanks to Ukraine, the Polish Defense Minister announced on Tuesday, while his German counterpart has assured that he will respond shortly.
“Germany has already received the request to authorize the transfer of the ‘Leopard 2’ tanks to Ukraine,” said the Polish minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, in a message published on Tuesday on the social network Twitter, in which he appealed to Berlin to join the “coalition of countries supporting Ukraine with ‘Leopard 2′”.
Niemcy otrzymali już nasz wniosek o wyrażenie zgody na przekazanie czołgów Leopard 2 na Ukrainę. Apeluję także do strony niemieckiej o przyłączenie się do koalicji państw wspierających Ukrainę czołgami Leopard 2. To nasza wspólna sprawa, bo chodzi o bezpieczeństwo całej Europy! pic.twitter.com/9oMQihI83Z
– Mariusz Blaszczak (@mblaszczak) January 24, 2023
According to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the Berlin government hopes to resolve “in the coming days” its doubts about sending the Leopard 2 to Ukraine, noting that the first step is to draw up an inventory of currently available tanks.
Once this inventory is done, and “if so,” the issue can be resolved in days, Pistorius said in an interview with ZDF television, a few hours before the meeting scheduled for Tuesday with the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. .
Berlin also promised to “act quickly” when it comes to training personnel and transporting cars, but clarified that the final decision rests with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, referring to speculation in recent days about a possible split within the ruling coalition for the help that the Ukrainian authorities have been asking for.
Poland had already advanced, on Monday, that it was going to request authorization from Germany to send the Leopards to Ukraine, but the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, had not specified when the request would be made.
“We will ask for authorization, but that is a secondary issue,” Morawiecki told reporters.
“Even if we don’t get authorization, we will deliver our tanks to Ukraine as part of a small coalition, even if Germany is not part of it,” he added.
Poland, which has declared itself ready to deliver 14 Leopard tanks to kyiv, stressed that it is in talks with some 15 countries on this matter.
Germany has been under increasing pressure to hand over its Leopards to Ukraine, which is insistently demanding them, and on Sunday Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the country was ready to hand over the tanks despite Chancellor German was reluctant to comment on the matter.
“If they applied to us, we wouldn’t object,” said Annalena Baerbock.
Poland is obliged to make an official request to Berlin before handing over the tanks, which are part of the German reserves.
Source: TSF
