Ukraine holds out hope for German tanks

Pressure grew on Germany on Saturday to authorize the transfer of Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, even as Ukrainian officials signaled that they believed it would be only a matter of time before the Germanmade tanks arrived.

The pressure was coming from several quarters. In a joint statement on Twitter, the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania urged Germany to “provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine now.”

Some Ukrainian voices were even harsher. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, said that the “indecision is killing more of our people.”

“You'll help Ukraine with the necessary weapons anyway and realize that there is no other option to end the war,” he wrote on Twitter, adding: “Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster.”

Ukraine's defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said that he was “optimistic” that Germany would decide to allow transfers of the Leopards and that his country's troops would begin training on the tanks in Poland in the meantime.

Poland's Defense Ministry did not immediately confirm Reznikov's assertion, but Polish officials have been among the most vociferous voices urging Germany to clear the way for Leopards. The Polish government has said it stands ready to send some of its own, though legally it needs Germany to sign off on any such move.

Many Western defense officials meeting in Germany on Friday had hoped to reach a deal on sending the German-made tanks, which are stocked by many European countries and which Ukraine sees as crucial to its war effort. But the meeting ended without a decision from Germany, which so far has resisted sending its own Leopards to Ukraine or giving other countries that have them the necessary approval to export them.

Germany has also pushed for the United States to take the lead by sending some of its most advanced battle tanks, the M1 Abrams, but on Saturday criticism was largely falling on Berlin.

Ukraine's appeals for tanks and more weapons from the West have taken on greater urgency with the approach of spring, when both sides to the conflict are preparing offensives, officials have said. And Russia's recent claims to have captured the small towns of Soledar and Klishchiivka — part of a broader push to seize the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine — have added to the pressure.