WARSAW, 23 Jan: Poland said Monday it would ask Berlin for permission to send German-built Leopard tanks to Ukraine, as the government in Warsaw pushes its Western allies to move faster on supplying Kyiv with more military hardware to thwart Russia\u2019s invasion.
\nGermany has hesitated over sending tanks to Ukraine. But Polish officials took heart from the German foreign minister\u2019s remarks on Sunday that Berlin wouldn\u2019t seek to stop Poland from providing Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine.
\nPolish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki didn\u2019t specify at a news conference Monday when the request to Germany will be made. He said that Poland is building a coalition of nations ready to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine.
\nPoland needs the consent of Germany, which builds the tanks, to send them to a non-NATO country.
\nBut even if there is no permission from Germany, Warsaw will make its own decisions, Morawiecki said.
\nPoland has become a leading advocate in the European Union for giving Ukraine the military aid that could help it prevail over the Kremlin\u2019s invading forces 11 months after the war started. Germany\u2019s hesitation has drawn criticism, particularly from Poland and the Baltic states, countries on NATO\u2019s eastern flank that feel especially threatened by Russia\u2019s renewed aggression.
\nBerlin, though it has provided substantial aid, has been criticized for dragging its feet on providing military hardware.
\nGerman government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said Monday it was important for Germany not to take a \u201creckless\u201d step that might be regretted afterward, adding that a decision will not be rushed.
\n\u201cThese are hard questions of life and death,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have to ask what this means for the defense of our own country.\u201d
\nPressed on how long a decision on sending tanks might take, Hebestreit said: \u201cI assume that it\u2019s not a question of months now.\u201d
\nThe Ukrainian government says that tanks, and especially the Leopards, are vital to Kyiv\u2019s war effort.
\nPreviously, Polish officials have indicated that Finland and Denmark were ready to join Warsaw in sending Leopards to Ukraine. The United Kingdom has pledged to send some of its Challenger tanks. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that he doesn\u2019t rule out sending Leclerc battle tanks to Ukraine and had asked his defense minister to \u201cwork on\u201d the idea.
\nBut Macron said that a decision hinged on three criteria that have also weighed on the minds of other Western leaders: that sharing the equipment doesn\u2019t lead to an escalation of the conflict, that it would provide efficient and workable help when training time is taken into account, and that it wouldn\u2019t weaken his country\u2019s own military.
\nMorawiecki said that while Poland intends to ask Germany for permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, the request is \u201ca secondary matter\u201d as a group of EU countries look at how to help Kyiv.
\n\u201cEven if, eventually, we do not get this permission, we \u2014 within this small coalition \u2014 even if Germany is not in this coalition, we will hand over our tanks, together with the others, to Ukraine,\u201d he said.
\nMorawiecki said talks have also been held \u201cwith our partners in Brussels\u201d on the subject, referring to the 27-nation EU bloc.
\n\u201cNaturally, these are not easy talks, but we will be taking efforts to break this barrier of unwillingness in various countries,\u201d he said.
\nGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told French television channel LCI on Sunday that Poland hasn\u2019t formally asked for Berlin\u2019s approval to share some of its German-made Leopards, but added \u201cif we were asked, we would not stand in the way.\u201d
\nRegarding Baerbock\u2019s comments, Morawiecki said that \u201cexerting pressure makes sense\u201d and that her words are a \u201cspark of hope\u201d that Germany may even take part in the coalition.
\nBaerbock \u201csent a different message that offers a spark of hope that not only Germany will no longer block, but maybe finally will offer heavy, modern equipment in support of Ukraine,\u201d Morawiecki said.
\n\u201cWe are constantly exerting pressure on the government in Berlin to make its Leopards available,\u201d Morawiecki told a news conference in the western city of Poznan.
\nAccording to Morawiecki, Germany has \u201cmore than 350 active Leopards and about 200 in storage.\u201d
\nPoland wants to send a company of Leopard tanks, which means 14 of them, but they would barely make an impression in a war that involves thousands of tanks. If other countries contribute, Warsaw reckons, the tank detachment could grow to a much bigger brigade size.
\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the latest developments on sending Western Europe tanks to Ukraine \u201csignaled increasing nervousness among members of the alliance.\u201d (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WARSAW, 23 Jan: Poland said Monday it would ask Berlin for permission to send German-built Leopard tanks to Ukraine, as the government in Warsaw pushes its Western allies to move faster on supplying Kyiv with more military hardware to thwart Russia\u2019s invasion. Germany has hesitated over sending tanks to Ukraine. But Polish officials took heart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-209385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}