BERLIN: Germany is facing a backlash from allies over its reluctance to supply Leopard 2 tanks to bolster Ukraine’s fighting capacity in the nearly year-long war with Russia.
On Friday, 50 countries agreed to provide Kyiv with billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware, including armoured vehicles and munitions needed to push back Russian forces.
But the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, told reporters at the US Ramstein airbase in Germany that despite heightened expectations, “we still cannot say when a decision will be taken, and what the decision will be, when it comes to the Leopard tank”.
Ukraine on Saturday denounced the “global indecision” of its allies in providing heavy-duty modern tanks, saying “today’s indecision is killing more of our people”.
“Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster,” tweeted presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.
Several allies echoed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in saying the tanks were essential to Ukraine’s fight with its much larger neighbour.
In a joint statement and a rare public criticism of Europe’s top power the foreign ministers of the three Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania said they “call on Germany to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine now”.
“This is needed to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe quickly. Germany as the leading European power has special responsibility in this regard,” said the statement, tweeted by the Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs.