Russian Putin Ukraine war

Germany said it would not fight Poland's move to ship the German-made tanks, which Ukraine has said are essential to fighting off a Russian advance.

It was a setback to [Kyiv’s hopes](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/21/world/europe/ukraine-germany-leopard-tanks.html?action=click&pgtype=LegacyCollection&state=default&module=styln-russia-ukraine&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc)to quickly receive weapons that President Volodymyr Zelensky has called [crucial to the next phase of the war](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/world/europe/tanks-ukraine-germany-us.html?action=click&pgtype=LegacyCollection&state=default&module=styln-russia-ukraine&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc). [crashed in a fireball in a Kyiv suburb](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/world/europe/ukraine-helicopter-crash.html?action=click&pgtype=LegacyCollection&state=default&module=styln-russia-ukraine&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc), killing [a member of Mr. Opinion polls show that half of Germans do not want to send tanks. Most important, the Ukrainians say, Germany’s hesitance threatens to hamper their ability to hold off or turn around an anticipated Russian offensive this spring. It has been as much a psychological shock to Germany as a political one, undercutting many of its assumptions about Russia; about its president, Vladimir V. Army leaders decided in the 1990s that the service needed a more mobile strike force that could go anywhere in the world in just four days. [Bradley infantry fighting vehicles](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/world/europe/what-is-the-bradley-fighting-vehicle.html) and other weapons as part of a $2.5 billion military aid package for Kyiv. Strykers were initially built with flat-bottomed hulls, which proved vulnerable to improvised bombs set to detonate underneath them by insurgents in Iraq. And Russia’s recent claims to have captured the small eastern towns of Berlin has pushed for Washington to send Abrams tanks to Kyiv, a request the Biden administration has shown no interest in granting. Polish officials have been among the loudest voices urging [Germany to sign off](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/world/europe/leopard-2-tanks-ukraine.html), which it is legally required to do as the tank’s maker. military stockpiles to a foreign country.

Berlin says it will not 'stand in way' of Poland sending Leopard tanks; Zelenskiy says 'no return to what used to be in the past'

Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the governor of Sumy, has posted a video to the Telegram messaging app that he claims shows the aftermath of Russian shelling on the village of Boyaro-Lezhachi, which is close to his region’s border with Russia. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock’s comment on Sunday, that her country would not “stand in the way” of Poland sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine, is causing some confusion in Berlin. “In recent years, the Estonian leadership has purposefully destroyed the entire range of relations with Russia. It quotes what it describes as a representative of the region claiming that eight Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the attack, and 12 more injured. Russia has said it is downgrading diplomatic relations with the Nato member Estonia, accusing Tallinn of “total Russophobia”. “Germany was not isolated”, Pistorius said of last Friday’s meeting at the Ramstein air base. The German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock’s comment on Sunday that her country would not “stand in the way” of Poland sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine has caused some confusion in Berlin. The top Moscow-installed official in the Russian-occupied parts of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine said late on Sunday that he had visited the town of Soledar, which Russia claimed to have captured earlier this month. “During offensive operations in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, units of the eastern military district took up more advantageous ground and positions,” the defence ministry said on Sunday. “It’s important that we as an international community do everything to defend Ukraine, so that Ukraine wins”, she told press at a meeting of the EU’s foreign affairs council in Brussels. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said during his visit to South Africa that Ukraine was rejecting peace talks and the longer this continued, the harder it would be to resolve the conflict. Germany’s approval for the re-export of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine is of secondary importance as Poland could send those tanks as part of a coalition of countries even without its permission, the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said on Monday.