Poland may ship Leopard tanks to Ukraine with out Berlin’s approval

WARSAW (Reuters) – Germany’s approval for the re-export of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine is of secondary significance as Poland may ship these tanks as a part of a coalition of nations even with out its permission, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki mentioned on Monday.

The US and its allies failed throughout talks in Germany final week to persuade Berlin to supply its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, a key demand from Kyiv because it tries to breathe new momentum into its struggle towards Russian forces.

Poland is pushing for international locations who’ve German-made Leopards to ship them to Ukraine, even when Germany doesn’t wish to be a part of them.

“We’ll ask for such permission, however this is a matter of secondary significance. Even when we didn’t get this approval … we might nonetheless switch our tanks along with others to Ukraine”, Morawiecki informed reporters.

“The situation for us in the mean time is to construct not less than a small coalition of nations.”

Germany wouldn’t stand in the way in which if Poland despatched its German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, German International Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned on Sunday in an interview with French tv LCI.

“Stress is sensible, as a result of this weekend, the overseas minister of Germany despatched a barely totally different message that provides a glimmer of hope that not solely Germany won’t block (sending tanks) however will lastly hand over heavy tools, fashionable tools to assist Ukraine,” Morawiecki mentioned.

(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Enhancing by Toby Chopra)