KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The speaker of Russia’s parliament warned Sunday that countries supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons risked their own destruction, a message that followed new pledges of armored vehicles, air defense systems and other equipment but not the battle tanks Kyiv requested.
Germany is one of the main donors of weapons to Ukraine, and it ordered a review of its Leopard 2 stocks in preparation for a possible green light. Nonetheless, the government in Berlin has shown caution at each step of increasing its commitments to Ukraine, a hesitancy seen as rooted in its history and political culture. Their hesitation has drawn strong criticism, especially from Poland and the Baltics. Located on NATO’s eastern flank, historically dominated by Moscow, it is particularly threatened by Russia’s new imperial ambitions.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country was willing to form a “smaller coalition” of countries to send tanks anyway if Germany did not agree to transfer the Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
“It’s been almost a year since the outbreak of the war,” Morawiecki said in an interview with Polish state news agency PAP published Sunday. What more would it take for Germany to open its eyes and act according to the potential of the German state?”
“Above all, Berlin must not undermine or interfere with the activities of other countries,” Morawiecki said. In Washington on Sunday, two top lawmakers urged the United States to send some of its Abrams tanks to Ukraine to overcome Germany’s reluctance to share its own Leopard 2 tanks, which are more suitable.
“If we announced that we would only give one Abrams tank, it would unleash a flow of tanks from Germany,”. Michael McCall, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said this Sunday by ABC. I hear Germany is waiting for us to take the lead”.
Ukraine is demanding more weapons as it expects Russian forces to launch a new offensive in the spring.
He described the Kremlin’s goal in the conflict as, “total and absolute genocide, total annihilation war.”
Among those calling for more weapons for Ukraine was former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Sunday.
Johnson, who is facing new questions about personal finances at his home, was photographed in the town of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region. He said he traveled to Ukraine at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The last week has been particularly tragic for Ukraine, with tens of thousands dead and millions more displaced and displaced into Ukrainian cities, even by the standards of his almost year-long brutal war. No destruction has been brought about.
Zelensky, who mourned the victims of the helicopter crash on Saturday, vowed on Sunday that Ukraine would win the war.
