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Poland To Seek German Approval To Send Tanks To Ukraine

Poland had announced that it was ready to deliver 14 Leopard tanks to Kyiv.


(FILES) This file photo taken on December 8, 2022 shows a French Leclerc tank of the 1er Regiment de Chasseurs of Thierville-sur-Meuse members of the Battle group forward presence (BG FP) moving at the Cincu military training area, during an exercise with armoured vehicles and infantry, as part of the Aigle Nato Mission in Romania. – French President said on January 22, 2023 that France was still studying the possibility of delivering French-made Leclerc heavy tanks to Ukraine. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)

 

Poland will ask Germany for authorisation to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday.

“We will seek this approval,” he told reporters a day after Germany’s foreign minister said Berlin was ready to approve such a transfer.

Germany has faced growing pressure from Ukraine to allow it to obtain its  vaunted Leopard tank to help in the nearly year-old war against Russia.

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Earlier in January, Poland had announced that it was ready to deliver 14 Leopard tanks to Kyiv, but it was waiting for a clear statement from Berlin authorising the transfer.

On Sunday, Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told LCI television that Germany would not stand in the way if Warsaw asked to send Leopards to Ukraine.

In his comments on Monday, Morawiecki said that “even if we didn’t get such an approval in the end, we will give our tanks to Ukraine anyway – within a small coalition of countries, even if Germany isn’t in that coalition”, Morawiecki said.

AFP