Ukraine on Saturday deplored the “indecision” of the West on the delivery of heavy tanks, while some of its European allies directly pointed the finger at Germany, after its refusal to deliver its Leopard tanks to kyiv, when the Russians are on the offensive. “The indecision of these days kills even more of our fellow citizens”, criticized Mykhaïlo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, on Twitter, calling on kyiv’s allies, who met the day before in Ramstein (Germany), to “think faster” .
In Ramstein, the fifty or so countries represented did not agree on Friday on sending heavy tanks to kyiv, despite repeated requests from Ukraine, because Berlin refuses that other countries deliver German-designed Leopard tanks. Quoted by The Voice of Americathe Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksiï Reznikov, however indicated that Ukrainian soldiers would soon train on Leopards in Poland: “We will start with that, and we will see for the future”, he declared .
A “crappy show” that annoys across the Atlantic
In a rare public criticism, the three Foreign Ministers of the Baltic countries for their part urged Berlin on Saturday morning “to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine as of now”, pleading “the particular responsibility” of Germany, “the first European power. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, for his part, temporized, stressing that there was still “a window of opportunity between now and spring” to deliver Western tanks.
Direct criticism of Berlin also came from a Republican US senator, Lindsey Graham, after a visit to kyiv on Friday. “I’m sick of the ‘shitty show’ around who’s going to send tanks and when,” he blasted on Twitter. “To the Germans: send tanks to Ukraine because they need them. (…) To the Biden administration: send American tanks so that others follow our example”.