“The decision to send Leopards to Ukraine is a big step towards deterring Russia,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, commenting on the German government’s decision to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

In a post on Twitter, the head of the Polish government thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “The decision to send Leopards to Ukraine is a big step towards deterring Russia. Together we are stronger”, wrote Mateusz Morawiecki. 

Satisfaction after Germany’s decision are also expressed by the presidential palace. “Germany’s decision to provide Ukraine with Leopard tanks is very good, President Andrzej Duda, who was in-formed about the progress of these arrangements, expresses satisfaction with the decision”, said the head of the National Security Office Jacek Siewiera.

The German government announced on Wednesday the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. “In the first stage, Germany wants to provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard Type 2A6 tanks from Bundeswehr stocks”, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement. Germany will also issue the relevant permits to partner countries that want to quickly deliver Leopard 2 tanks from its stocks to Ukraine.

German media note that Warsaw’s pressure on Berlin, which has been pushing for weeks to form an international coalition on the delivery of Leopards to Ukraine, has had a tangible effect. Pressure on Germany’s ruling SPD has also intensified from Ukrainian diplomats. 

“I believe that the Polish-initiated coalition of states on this issue is being formed right before our eyes. Germany finally had to make a decision”, Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Oleksiy Makeyev told ARD.

President Andrzej Duda was the first to declare the handover of Leopard machines to Ukraine at the Lublin Triangle summit in Lviv on 11 January. The Polish president also appealed to Western countries to increase their support for Ukraine, which is heroically fending off attacks by Putin’s troops.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński