By BRUSSELS. Jan 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – France and Poland are pushing Germany to equip Kyiv with Leopard tanks, Politico reports citing people familiar with the matter.
Paris is pressuring Germany to get an agreement from Berlin to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine ahead of the Franco-German summit on January 22, a French official told the publication.
It is noted that similar pressure comes from Poland, which wants to form a broad coalition among Western partners in order to jointly transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
The publication recalls that last Thursday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.S. President Joe Biden announced that their countries would send infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine. It is emphasized that this statement was made the day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery of French AMX-10 armored vehicles.
As a French official noted in an interview with the publication, the "goal" of Macron’s statement "was to break the taboo [on sending Western tanks to Ukraine] so that the Germans would start moving."
In addition, the interlocutor of the newspaper said that Kyiv appealed to Paris with a request to send French Leclerc battle tanks to Ukraine.
However, French officials warn that the Leclerc tanks are no longer in production, raising questions about their maintenance and supply of spare parts.
However, France would be willing to provide its Leclerc tanks to NATO allies, who will send some of their Leopard tanks to Ukraine to fill in the gaps, an official in Paris said.
