WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland plans to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of an international coalition, the Polish president said on Wednesday.
Kyiv has been requesting heavy military vehicles such as the German-made Leopard 2, which would represanent a significant step-up in Western support to Ukraine.
“A company of Leopard tanks will be handed over as part of coalition building,” Andrzej Duda said during a visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. “We want it to be an international coalition.”
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday that Poland did not intend to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine without the formation of a wider coalition.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday that he remained convinced of the need to coordinate weapons deliveries to Ukraine with allies.
However, a German government spokesman said on Wednesday that it was not aware of any requests from its allies to send Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz, Anna Koper; Editing by Peter Graff and Conor Humphries)
