Poland will formally request Germany's endorsement to send tanks to Ukraine

Latvia urges Scholz to speed up delivery processes for Leopard tanks to Ukraine

The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, confirmed on Monday that his government will formally request Germany's permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, one day after the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, opened the door to this delivery.

The tanks that Warsaw offers kyiv are German-made, so Berlin theoretically needs to approve the shipment. Faced with Germany's suspicion of this export to a third country, the Polish government even threatened to take action on its own.

"They haven't asked us the question so far, but if they do, we're not going to oppose it," Baerbock said Sunday, in an interview with French television LCI when asked what would happen if Poland handed over Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine.

Morawiecki has picked up the glove this Monday to confirm that he will present a formal request, although the date of the request and when the final delivery of the tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces would remain to be clarified.

For his part, the President of Latvia, Egils Levits, has asked the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to speed up the processes to send this type of vehicle to Ukraine as soon as possible. "Everything must be done", he emphasized during an interview on German public radio.

Levits has pointed out that by sending the Leopards to the battlefield, not only will the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian side be strengthened, but also "the security of Europe as a whole", also recalling that it is a demand that has the approval of almost the entire continent.

In this sense, Levits has questioned the doubts raised by Scholz to delay the permits to deliver and has lamented that this is detrimental to Ukraine, a country subject to "strong pressure" which should not be denied these tanks, "If a country doesn't cooperate, of course it's a problem," he said.