Following Germany’s apparent opening of the door to such supplies by allies, European foreign ministers urged Berlin to allow countries to send Leopard tanks when they met on Monday to discuss aid to Ukraine.
When Western nations offered billions of dollars worth of support last week at a U.S. air base in Germany, they were unable to come to an agreement on delivering Ukraine heavy battle tanks.
The best tanks for Ukraine are generally considered to be Germany’s Leopard models, which are used by militaries throughout Europe. However, Berlin must approve their export and has not done so.
Berlin would not obstruct Poland from sending the tanks, according to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Sunday.
When she arrived at the conference in Brussels on Monday, she chose not to go into further detail about those remarks or clarify if she had been speaking on behalf of the entire administration, but she did stress the need to do everything we can to safeguard Ukraine.
The Social Democrats, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left political party, think that the West should refrain from making rash decisions that would worsen the conflict. However, a handful of allies disagree, claiming that Russia has already made up its mind to attack Ukraine.
The provision of battle tanks is now unjustified, according to Latvia’s foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics. The escalation argument is invalid because Russia is still escalating.
The tanks shouldn’t be delayed for another day, according to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, and Germany has a special duty to assist Ukraine as the engine of Europe, according to Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu. Foreign Minister of Luxembourg Jean Asselborn warned that if Europeans “don’t help Ukraine with what they need now,” Russia might win the war.
The EU is debating providing Kyiv with a fresh influx of military financing at 500 million euros. Josep Borrell, the head of EU foreign policy, expressed hope that it will be approved by member states on Monday, but added, I don’t know. Catherine Colonna, the French minister of foreign affairs, expressed confidence that the proposal would be adopted.
Hungary was reportedly delaying that cargo, according to Polish media. Requests for comment about those reports were not met with any response from the Hungarian government or foreign ministry.
Although no decisions are anticipated on Monday, the ministers will debate a tenth package of sanctions against Russia that will go into effect next month, according to diplomatic sources who spoke to Reuters. The ministers will also discuss leveraging Russian assets that have been frozen in Europe as a result of sanctions to aid in the reconstruction of Ukraine.
