Germany’s Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has pointed out that Berlin will not stand in the way of Poland’s supply of German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine, announced by its president, Andrzej Duda, on Wednesday from Ukrainian territory.
«Germany should not stand in the way when other countries make decisions to support Ukraine, regardless of the decision Germany makes,» Vice Chancellor Habeck, a member of the environmentalist and pacifist Greens party, said Thursday.
The Leopard is a German-made battle tank model, which also plays a key role because, as a rule, the transfer of domestically manufactured weapons to third parties must be approved by Berlin.
President Duda confirmed this new armament supply during a meeting with his Ukrainian and Lithuanian counterparts, Volodimir Zelenski and Gitanas Nauseda, respectively, in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
The Polish government has acknowledged that, with this decision, Warsaw hopes to encourage other countries to follow in its footsteps. Although Germany has not been mentioned directly, pressure is growing on Berlin to supply tanks to the Ukrainian army.
On the other hand, questioned about the reasons for Duda’s announcement, government spokesman Piotr Müller argued that Russia’s next target could be precisely Poland. «If we do not defend the independence of Ukraine, we will be the next target», he said before the microphones of the TVP radio station.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
