For Ukraine, the military and financial support of Western allies is crucial against Russia. She says she needs hundreds of modern tanks and other armaments for a new offensive.
“Discussions must end with decisions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged on Tuesday evening about possible deliveries of Western heavy tanks to Ukraine, when Berlin and Washington could take the plunge this Wednesday according to several media.
“The allies have the required number of tanks” necessary for the Ukrainian army to overthrow the troops in Moscow, he said in his daily address published on social networks, hammering that “the needs are greater” than ” five, ten or fifteen chariots”.
Four deputy ministers, including that of Defense Viatcheslav Shapovalov, as well as five governors and other officials had to leave their posts in the wake of this affair.
“The Germans are delaying, procrastinating”
In Berlin, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he “expressly encouraged partner countries that have Leopard tanks ready for deployment to train Ukrainian forces on these tanks” during a press conference in Berlin with Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO.
These declarations constitute a step forward in the position of Germany, where the government of Olaf Scholz is under increasing pressure to allow partner countries who wish to do so to deliver these German-made tanks to Ukraine.
So far, Finland and Poland have said they are ready to do so. Warsaw, which wants to create a “coalition of countries supporting Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks”, has officially sent a request to this effect, the receipt of which was confirmed by Berlin on Tuesday.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he hoped for a quick response, regretting that “the Germans are delaying, procrastinating, acting in a way that is difficult to understand”.
