The United Kingdom, France and Poland this Wednesday welcomed Berlin’s decision to allow the shipment of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, with Spain warning of the danger of an escalation of the war against Russia.
In London, the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunar, in a publication on the social network Twitter, praised Germany’s “good decision” which will “enable it to strengthen Ukraine’s defensive capacity” in the face of the Russian invasion.
“The decision of our allies and friends of NATO is a good one [Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte] to send tanks to Ukraine. Next to the ‘Challenger 2’ [os tanques prometidos recentemente por Londres]”The army will strengthen Ukraine’s defensive capacity,” Sunar stressed.
The right decision of NATO allies and friends to send battle tanks to Ukraine. In addition to Challenger 2s, they will bolster Ukraine’s defensive firepower.
Together we are accelerating our efforts to ensure that Ukraine wins this war and secures a lasting peace. https://t.co/55BKg7orfJ
Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) January 25, 2023
In Paris, the French President Emmanuel Macron also praised Germany’s “green light” to send armored vehicles to Ukraine, highlighting France’s “long and broad” support for the delivery, soon, of lighter tanks, the ‘AMX10-RC’.
However, the French government has not yet decided to send its own ‘Leclerc’ tanks, a possibility Macron has not ruled out.
In Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki hailed the German decision, which he sees as “a big step to stop Russia”.
“Together we are stronger,” Morawiecki also said on the social network Twitter, in a message thanking German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
thanks @Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholtz. The decision to send leopards to Ukraine is a big step towards stopping Russia. Together we are stronger.
– Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) January 25, 2023
Spokesman for Scholz’s director, Steffen Hebestreit, explained that Germany will provide 14 ‘Leopard 2 A6’ which are in the armory of the German Armed Forces, after days of speculation about the position Berlin would eventually take.
Poland had demanded Germany’s approval to send the ‘Leopard’ tanks and even threatened to act unilaterally if Scholz did not grant such permission.
More moderately, the Spanish government, through the Minister of Social Rights and for the Agenda 2030, Ione Belarra, commented on the German decision, saying that sending Leopard armored vehicles to Ukraine “only contributes to a belligerent escalation, warning that “it could lead to an unpredictable and very dangerous response from Russia”.
Belarra, speaking from the sidelines at the opening of an event organized by the European Network for the Fight against Poverty and Social Exclusion in the Spanish State (EAPN-ES), thus defended the resolution of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia along diplomatic way.
“Many experts have warned that the leopards are only contributing to the escalation of the war and that this could provoke an unpredictable and very dangerous reaction from Russia,” Belarra stressed.
Germany authorized the sending of German-made “Leopard 2” tanks for the Ukrainian army to fight the Russian invasion and approved requests from other countries to the same effect, the spokesman for the Berlin executive said.
“This decision follows our known line of support for Ukraine in the best possible way. We are acting internationally in a very coordinated manner,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, quoted by Hebestreit.
In a statement, the German government said it will initially deliver 14 of its ‘Leopard 2 A6’ tanks to Ukraine. Germany and its allies are expected to supply the Ukrainian army with a total of 88 tanks.
Source: DN
