Poland will try to form a smaller coalition of countries eager to deliver German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine if Germany does not give its needed seal of approval, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said after Western Allies failed to agree on the matter Friday.
Morawiecki’s comment comes after the Western allies that form the Ukraine Defence Contact Group failed to reach a consensus on delivery in Ramstein on Friday. While the idea to send the war-torn Kyiv the German-produced tanks gathered a broad coalition of support, it requires consent from Berlin.
“We will not look passively on Ukraine bleeding out. Ukraine and Europe will win this war, whether with or without Germany,” Morawiecki told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) in an interview published on Sunday.
Morawiecki called out Germany for its approach to cooperation with Russia over the years. “They believed they could placate the Russian bear with generous contracts. That policy went bankrupt, and now Germany finds it hard to admit its mistake,” argued Morawiecki.
He said he continued to appeal to his German counterpart Olaf Scholz “to take a resolute action” on military support to Ukraine.
However, “it is on Germany to decide whether it wants to join the mission of stopping barbaric Russia, or (…) they take a wrong side of history,” he added.
Łatę on Sunday in an interview with French television network LCI, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Germany will not stand in the way if Poland sends German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
In Ramstein, new German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced his ministry would check the army’s inventories of Leopards while it continues to discuss whether to release them, but denied having unilaterally blocked the delivery of tanks to Ukraine, the Financial Times reported.
Morawiecki said he expected Berlin to provide “a clear declaration” of support regarding sending weapons to Ukraine, noting that such a move “is justified politically and morally.”
“I hope Germany sooner or later takes this in,” the prime minister concluded.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)
Source: euractiv.com
