A week ahead of the Ramstein talks, Poland is increasing pressure on Germany with an effort to deliver Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine. Your country has already taken the decision to supply Ukrainians with Leopard battle tanks for a company as part of a coalition, President Andrzej Duda said today in Lviv (Lviv) after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.
In Poland, as in Germany, a Leopard company is usually equipped with 14 main battle tanks. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin invited members of the Ukraine contact group to a January 20 meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate. It should go to the additional help of the weapon. In addition to the US, Germany and Great Britain also belong to the Ukraine contact group.
Duda said the prerequisite for the delivery of the Leopard main battle tanks was “a whole series of formal requirements and authorizations”. On the other hand, Poland wanted the formation of an international coalition to which other countries would also contribute with main battle tanks “like Leopard and others”. These would then have to be transferred to Ukraine in a timely manner in order to support the defense of the country attacked by Russia.
Germany plays a key role in the debate because the Leopard 2 tanks were developed in Germany and cannot be delivered to Ukraine without German approval. The German federal government has shown no signs of changing course in the short term. “It is not very likely” that there will be a change in the German government’s attitude ahead of the meeting in Ramstein, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in Berlin. According to him, there were no specific questions.