The members from EU countries including Finland, Lithuania, and Poland urged Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who named a new defense minister on Tuesday, 17 January 2023, to swiftly export Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine.
According to The Bangkok Post, the Polish President expressed her concerns and expectations over the tanks’ issue.
“We hope and we are trying to organize a bigger support for Ukraine…We hope that the producer of those tanks, Germany, will also participate in this, in my opinion, very, very, very good idea,” said Poland’s President Andrzej Duda.
While the Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda compared the Russia-Ukraine war to a game of chess and suggested Germany needed to make a move now.
“I like to play chess. You have to take the move and others will follow. Someone has to take this leadership and take this decision to support Ukraine because the tanks become a very strategic factor of this war, especially now,” he said.
In addition, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto also said during a sideline event at a Ukraine-themed pavilion that:
“We hope that this decision (to deliver Leopards) will be made real, and Finland is definitely ready to play its part in that support,” reported The Bangkok Post.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for eleven months now, starting when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2484787/eu-partners-press-germany-over-tanks-for-ukraine
