Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk has expressed frustration that Germany has yet to decide whether or not to send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine..
Speaking to CNN’s Isa Soares on Friday, Melnyk called Germany’s indecisiveness a “disappointment” after first praising the UK for its progress with a commitment of Challenger 2 tanks, adding that he hoped the move would encourage other countries could encourage you to follow suit.
The UK is the “first country to deliver Challenger 2 main battle tanks and hopefully that could be a trigger for other countries, but unfortunately not yet for Germany”, describing Germany’s inaction as a “huge disappointment for all Ukrainians”.
Germany has so far failed to reach an agreement with its main Western allies to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, despite growing pressure from NATO and Kiev to increase their military aid in the run-up to a possible Russian spring offensive.
Germany’s new defense minister Boris Pistorius told reporters on the sidelines of a key defense meeting at Germany’s Ramstein airbase on Friday that a decision has not yet been made on sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
For his part, Melnyk further expressed Ukraine’s disappointment with Germany’s announcement, while hoping that Germany would weigh Ukraine’s concerns and still be able to decide to send the Leopard tanks.
“The government in Germany has not made this important decision, not only to first let other countries such as Poland, Finland or Spain or Greece, which do have German main battle tanks, do the same, but also to strengthen and create it, as we It is the ‘Global Tanks Coalition’ to help the Ukrainian forces drive out the Russians and launch the counter-offensive that will enable us to liberate the occupied territories,” he said.
“We are disappointed, but the decision has still not been made, so we hope that the government in Berlin takes seriously all the concerns they heard in Ramstein (Friday),” Melnyk added.
“After 331 days of ruthless war that Russia has waged against Ukraine, they are still taking inventory of the stocks, of (the) Bundeswehr (the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany) and in industry, to check whether they have anything to send it to Ukraine! It’s ridiculous.”
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