Ukraine war: ‘Frank’ talks as Ukraine pushes Germany for tanks

BBC News:

Ukraine’s defence minister has said he had a “frank discussion” with his German counterpart about German Leopard 2 tanks, which Kyiv is urgently requesting to confront Russian armour.

Germany has not yet decided whether to send the tanks to Ukraine, or allow other countries to donate theirs, despite pressure on Berlin to act.

“We had a frank discussion on Leopards 2. To be continued,” Oleksii Reznikov said after meeting Western allies.

Kyiv is to get many other Nato weapons.

The meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany did bring an agreement to supply more armoured vehicles, air defence systems and ammunition.

But the Leopard 2 is seen as a potential game-changer for Ukraine, as it is easy to maintain and designed specifically to compete with the Russian T-90 tanks, which are being used in the invasion.

• What weapons are being supplied to Ukraine?

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said opinions remained divided over supplying Leopards, and he denied that Berlin was blocking such a move.

Under German export laws, other countries who want to supply Leopards – like Poland and Finland – are unable to do so until Berlin gives the all-clear.