Poland to seek German approval to send tanks to Ukraine

Poland will ask Germany for authorization to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.

“We will seek this approval,” he told reporters a day after Germany’s foreign minister said Berlin was ready to approve such a transfer.

Germany has faced growing pressure from Ukraine to allow it to obtain its vaunted Leopard tank to help in the nearly year-old war against Russia.

Earlier in January, Poland had announced that it was ready to deliver 14 Leopard tanks to Kyiv, but it was waiting for a clear statement from Berlin authorising the transfer.

On Sunday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told LCI television that Germany would not stand in the way if Warsaw asked to send Leopards to Ukraine.

In his comments on Monday, Morawiecki said that “even if we didn’t get such an approval in the end, we will give our tanks to Ukraine anyway – within a small coalition of countries, even if Germany isn’t in that coalition,” Morawiecki said.