BREAKING: Germany will provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks, Chancellor Scholz says, in move that comes after dispute between Western allies.
The German government said Wednesday it would quickly provide 14 Leopard 2 tanks as a"first step" and would allow other European nations to send their own Leopard tanks soon. The training of Ukrainian soldiers in using them will begin quickly, Germany said, alongside the provision of maintenance and ammunition.
It follows an official request from the Polish government Tuesday asking Germany to sign off on plans to send Leopard 2 tanks to the battlefield — the culmination of a weekslong pressure campaign on Europe's leading power to do more to back Ukraine's cause at a key moment in the 11-month war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asking for increased firepower since before Russia’s invasion last February.
“In order for us to defeat the Russian Federation, we absolutely need tanks,” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said in an interview last week. “The fact is that the question of which weapon is needed is determined by the military. It is the military that insists that tanks and heavy artillery are crucial today.”
"Battle tanks are of course important, both to be able to repel new Russian offensives but also for Ukraine to be able to retake territory and prevail as a sovereign independent nation in Europe," he said, speaking alongside German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
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