(Davos) Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday expressed his “deep disappointment” due to the fact that Germany has still not provided tanks to his country in return for those sent by Warsaw to Ukraine.
Posted at 12:37 p.m.
“We passed tanks to Ukraine, and it was a significant number,” Duda said at the Davos Economic Forum.
“If we were supported by our German allies, with a number of tanks that would allow us to replace the tanks transferred to Ukraine, we would be very grateful. We have received such a promise. (But now) we hear that Germany will not want to keep this promise. This is a deep disappointment for us,” he added.
Warsaw admitted in April that it had sent Soviet-designed T-72 tanks to Ukraine, but did not specify their number. According to the media, it would be more than two hundred machines.
The Polish army also has about 250 German Leopard 2 tanks and according to the media, it was waiting for Germany to supply more.
Last week, Czechia announced that it would receive 15 Leopard 2 A4 tanks from Germany to replace its T-72s sent to Ukraine.
Too high demands?
According to the weekly Der Spiegelunlike Prague, Warsaw insisted “on having modern tanks” and demanded that its material shortages be “filled with German Leopard tanks of the latest type”.
These demands would mean that the negotiations would be “desperately blocked”, the Bundeswehr itself not having a sufficient number of latest generation tanks.
On Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock acknowledged at a press conference with her Polish counterpart that the two sides were discussing the subject and how they could “clarify the uncertainties that perhaps exist at the moment. current”.
“We cannot supply heavy equipment at the push of a button or snap of our fingers, especially not from German stocks,” she said. “Rather, we must ensure that the material that will be delivered during the circular exchange is available, repaired or reordered”.
While regretting that the exchange was not as “dynamic as the situation in Ukraine and on the eastern flank (of NATO) requires”, Polish Minister Zbigniew Rau assured that the meeting in Berlin showed that he there was “a will to solve this problem”.