KYIV [Ukraine], Jan 22: Ukraine has said that global indecision is killing more Ukrainians. This comes after Germany didn’t take any decision on whether to supply German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine to strengthen the country’s fighting capacity against Russia, Al Jazeera reported.
“Today’s indecision is killing more of our people,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Saturday. “Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster,” he wrote.
According to Al Jazeera, Ukraine has been pleading for German-made Leopard 2 tanks. Several Ukrainian allies have echoed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s concerns, saying the tanks are essential to Ukraine’s fight with Russia.
Al Jazeera on Saturday reported that the United States and its allies have not reached any agreement on supplying German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine as Russia issued threats that the war could escalate in Europe.
NATO and defence leaders from about 50 countries met at the American Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday, the latest in a series of arms-pledging conferences since Russia invaded Ukraine 11 months ago.
At the meeting, European leaders pushed Germany to give a green light for the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine in order to drive back Moscow’s forces. No decision was, however, made.
According to Al Jazeera, failure to provide the tanks may indicate growing division within NATO over supplying such weapons.
Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius denied claims that Berlin was unilaterally blocking the delivery of the Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, but said his government was ready to move quickly on the issue if there were consensus among allies, Al Jazeera reported.
“There are good reasons for the deliveries and there are good reasons against, and in view of the entire situation of a war that has been ongoing for almost one year, all pros and cons must be weighed very carefully,” Pistorius said.
There is pressure on Berlin to provide tanks to Kyiv that Ukraine sees as key in its war against Russia.
Pistorius said that there is a view that Germany is standing in the way. “There are many allies who say we share the view that I have put forward here,” he said.
Pistorius said that while there was no decision yet on whether to send the Leopard tanks, “We will make our decisions as soon as possible,” he said, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
“I am very sure that there will be a decision in the short term but … I don’t know how the decision will look,” he said. (ANI)
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