Podolyak, an adviser to president volodymyr zelensky of ukraine, has said that the west’s “indecision” over sending extra weapons to ukraine is “killing more of our people”. germany has been reluctant to send leopard tanks, poland’s foreign minister zbigniew rau criticised germany’s reluctance and urged for action, and ukraine’s defence minister oleksii reznikov had a “frank discussion” with his german counterpart about the tanks. johann wadephul, a leading cdu politician in germany, condemned the government’s “policy of refusal” on the leopards, which he said would affect germany’s international reputation.
Events surrounding the west’s indecision to send weapons to ukraine occurred on thursday, when nine european nations met in estonia to promise their own weapon support. the us has declined to send the tanks, citing their costly and difficult maintenance, while the uk will provide 14 challenger 2s, and the us announced support worth more than $2.5bn (â£2bn), including armoured vehicles.
Main issue at hand is the need for modern tanks to de-occupy and liberate the territories of ukraine, as their current tanks are mostly soviet models and are often outnumbered and outgunned by russian firepower. president zelensky believes that the more than 2,000 leopards sitting in warehouses all over europe could help to defeat russia, and is calling for a decision to be made regarding the tanks. however, germany remains hesitant due to its legacy of world war two, as well as international diplomacy, and needs to give the all-clear before other countries like poland and finland can supply them. us defence secretary lloyd austin’s statement that the notion of “unlocking” was not an issue has done little to quell the issue.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64355839?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
