PARIS
\nGermany\u2019s foreign minister said on Sunday her government would not stand in the way if Poland wants to send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, in a possible breakthrough for Kyiv which wants the tanks for its fight against Russia\u2019s invasion.
\nUkrainian officials have been calling on Western allies to supply them with the modern German-made tanks for months \u2014 but Berlin has so far held back from sending them, or allowing other NATO countries to do so.
\nAsked what would happen if Poland went ahead and sent its Leopard 2 tanks without German approval, Annalena Baerbock said on France\u2019s LCI TV: \u201cFor the moment the question has not been asked, but if we were asked we would not stand in the way.\u201d
\nHer remarks appeared to go further than German Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s comments at a summit in Paris earlier on Sunday that all decisions on weapons deliveries would be made in coordination with allies including the United States.
\nGermany has been under heavy pressure to let Leopards go to Ukraine. But Scholz\u2019s Social Democrat party is traditionally skeptical of military involvements and wary of sudden moves that could cause Moscow to further escalate.
\nGerman Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday that he expected a decision soon on the tanks, though he kept up a note of caution.
\nPistorius told ARD TV that Germany would not make a hasty decision because the government had many factors to consider, including consequences at home for the security of the German population.
\nAfter the Paris summit, Scholz told a news conference that all weapons deliveries to Ukraine so far had taken place in close coordination with Western partners. \u201cWe will do that in the future,\u201d he said.
\nSpeaking at the same news conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said he did not rule out the possibility of sending Leclerc tanks to Ukraine.
\nMacron said that sending tanks must not escalate the situation, must take into account the time to train Ukrainians to be effective, and must not endanger France\u2019s own security.
\n\u201cRegarding the Leclercs, I asked the Army minister to work on it, but nothing has been ruled out,\u201d Macron said, adding that the move would have to be coordinated with allies such as Germany in the coming days and weeks.
\nGerman sources have told Reuters they would allow German-made tanks to be sent to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia if the United States agrees to send its own tanks. But US officials have said President Joe Biden\u2019s administration is not poised to send its own tanks, including the M1 Abrams.
\nThe Kremlin\u2019s spokesman said on Friday that Western countries supplying additional tanks to Ukraine would not change the course of the conflict and that they would add to the problems of the Ukrainian people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS Germany\u2019s foreign minister said on Sunday her government would not stand in the way if Poland wants to send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, in a possible breakthrough for Kyiv which wants the tanks for its fight against Russia\u2019s invasion. Ukrainian officials have been calling on Western allies to supply them with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-309244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n