The cry over Berlin is deafening and comes from the highest European offices so much so that Olaf Scholz, head of the German government, gives in to his block when the Leopard 2 tanks are delivered to Ukraine.
It is the weapons that kyiv she asks desperately be able to attack the Russian troops occupying its southeastern territory.
The Leopards 2 outrun Russian heavy tanks and are among the most effective in the world. Half of Europe is already thinking about sending those tanks but those governments to Ukraine need permission from Berlin Because the tanks are German made.
Scholz’s ears must be ringing. In recent days, directly or indirectly, the request came from the European “chancellor” Josep Borrell, the president of the European Council Charles Michel and the NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. It is also internal.
Its chancellor, environmentalist Annalena Baerbock, said in an interview on French public television on Sunday evening that if Poland officially presented the request, Berlin would approve it.
It was going far beyond what his boss Scholz had said a few hours earlier, who in a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron from Paris he had given evasive answers. Germany’s third government partner, the Liberal Party, is also in favor of sending the tanks.
The position of Poland
This Monday the pressure on Scholz has increased by another degree. Addressing German Chancellor Baerbock, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said: “We ask for permissionbut this is a secondary matter”.
Morawiecki was referring to Poland will still send Leopard 2 in their arsenals whatever Germany says, even if it would be violate the sales contract of tanks.
Morawiecki, who is the head of the European government who has most pressed for these tanks to be sent, said on Monday: “If Germany does not join this coalition – that of the countries that will send the tanks – we will move our tanks to Ukraine however, together with other countries.
On Friday, at a summit at the US base of Ramstein in Germany, the German announcement of the sending of tanks was expected, but Berlin resisted.
It is now expected for Tuesday morning, when the new German defense minister, Boris Pistorius, will receive NATO secretary general Stoltenberg in Berlin. The meeting, announced on Monday by the press service of the Atlantic Alliance, was not on Stoltenberg’s agenda.
Moscow’s “nuclear” response
Moscow has responded with the same threat with which it has responded to every shipment of Western arms to Ukraine since it launched its attack on Ukraine.
The Russian government has again warned that “the delivery of offensive weapons to Ukraine will lead to a world catastrophe”.
According to the Reuters agency on Monday, the speaker of the Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament), Viatcheslav Volodin, said that “arguments that nuclear powers have never used weapons of mass destruction before in local conflicts make no sense “. .
According to Volodin, “those states did not have to face a situation in which the security of their citizens and the territorial integrity of the country were threatened”.
Russia considers Crimea and four southeastern Ukrainian provinces they are yours despite forcibly occupying them.
Volodin also said: “If Washington and NATO countries deliver weapons that will be used to attack civilian locations and try to take over our territories, as they threaten to do, this will provoke retaliatory measures. using the most powerful weapons”.
Brussels, special
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Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.