Poland can send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine even without Germany’s approval, Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Yablonskyi said on Friday before a meeting of Western allies at the German Ramstein airbase regarding arming Kyiv, Reuters reports.

Warsaw and other NATO allies have called on Germany to give them the go-ahead to send German-made tanks to Ukraine, as Kyiv increasingly demands the heavy weapons it believes are necessary to thwart an invasion of Russia.

That issue appears to dominate Friday’s talks between the Western allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

“I do not rule out that we are ready to take such a step,” Pavel Yablonsky told the private radio station RMF FM, referring to the possibility of sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, even if Germany is against it.

“At the moment, we are trying to force Germany not only to agree to the sending of these tanks by Poland or other countries, but also to do it itself,” the Polish official added.

Germany has been reluctant to send heavy offensive weapons that could be seen as an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, and has so far refused to allow its allies to supply Leopard 2 tanks, which are now the mainstay of allied armies across Europe.

Allies irritated by Germany’s attitude

Jablonsky spoke as some allies grew increasingly irritated by Germany’s stance.

“I think that if there is strong resistance, we will be ready to go even to such non-standard measures… but not the facts in advance,” he said.

Jablonski’s remarks reinforced signals sent by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday, when he suggested that Warsaw could send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine as part of a wider coalition if Germany did not agree.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said on Thursday that several countries will announce the deployment of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine at a meeting in Ramstein.

However, Germany has not yet received a request from any country for permission to send German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, a German government source said on Thursday.

Finland announced new military aid

On Friday, Finland announced new military aid to Ukraine for 400 million euros.

The new donation will triple the total amount of defense aid provided by Finland to Ukraine, amounting to 590 million euros, the Finnish Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Miika Pinnonen, an adviser to Finland’s defense minister, said the decision to donate Leopard 2 tanks, of which Finland has about 200, would be made separately after talks with allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

“I can only say that this package does not include Leopard tanks.” (…) It consists of heavy weapons and ammunition,” Pinnonen told Reuters.

The US is not sending heavy tanks

Washington announced Thursday that it would unlock $2.5 billion in new military aid, which will include 59 Bradley armored vehicles in addition to the 50 light armored vehicles of the type promised on Jan. 6 and 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers, according to the data. Pentagon, writes Agerpres.

Also, the US Army will supply Ukraine with 53 anti-mine armored vehicles (MRAP) and 350 transport vehicles M998, the famous Humvee. Thanks to this new tranche, the total amount of US military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24 last year is $26.7 billion.

But this new tranche of aid does not include any heavy tanks, such as the Abrams model, which the United States says it is not yet ready to provide to Kiev for maintenance reasons.

It “simply doesn’t make sense” for the U.S. to supply M1 Abrams tanks “at this point,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Thursday, after German officials said they would not supply tanks to Ukraine until the U.S. decided to do so. the same, according to CNN.

Also, constant help from other partners

Great Britain promised to send Ukraine 600 additional Brimstone missiles, Denmark – 19 French-made Caesar guns and Sweden Archer self-propelled guns, systems that have a range of several tens of kilometers less than the one requested by the Ukrainians.

London has promised Kyiv 14 Challenger 2 tanks, and Poland has said it is ready to supply 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks, which is still far short of the hundreds of vehicles Ukraine says it needs.

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