Poland To Transfer Leopard Tanks To Ukraine Only If Other Countries Do So - Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki

Poland will hand over its Leopard tanks to Ukraine only on the condition that other countries do so, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2023) Poland will hand over its Leopard tanks to Ukraine only on the condition that other countries do so, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday.

Last week, Polish President Andrzej Duda, during his visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said his country would hand over a batch of Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of an international coalition which the country seeks to build to organize joint hardware deliveries to Kiev.

"We clearly said that we are declaring the transfer of up to 14 modern Leopard tanks, but on the condition others transfer these tanks, to be able to arm an entire brigade or two," Morawiecki told reporters, as broadcast by the national TVP tv channel.

At the same time, the prime minister urged Germany to continue supplying weapons to Ukraine.

"In this situation, the German contribution is of great importance. The largest state of the European Union, the strongest from an economic point of view, cannot sidestep from supporting Ukraine. So far, few weapons have been transferred," Morawiecki said.

Last week, media reported that France and Poland were pushing Germany to provide Ukraine with its Leopard 2 tanks. However, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said later that day that Berlin so far did not intend to supply Ukraine with Leopards.

In April 2022, Moscow sent a note to NATO member states condemning their military assistance to Kiev. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that pumping Ukraine with weapons did not contribute to the success of peace negotiations and would have a detrimental effect on the conflict.