Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he was “moderately pessimistic” Berlin would give the green light. His government has suggested that Poland may proceed anyway.
The German government said on Friday it had no information on Germany’s official requests from any country for permission to re-export German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
Kyiv and Moscow have relied primarily on Soviet-era T-72 tanks in combat, which have long been considered obsolete; Hundreds of people have perished in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation” to protect Russia and Russian speakers.
Ukraine and its allies say Russia poses no threat and is just trying to grab land.
The US aid announced on Thursday was valued at up to $2.5 billion, and includes 59 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers, bringing the total to more than $27.4 billion in US security assistance. This did not include the Abrams tanks, which US officials say are complex and consume fuel.
CIA Director’s Visit
Kyiv has repeatedly stated that it has no plans to attack Russia, it will only defend itself.
Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram, “The Ukrainian people will fight! With or without tanks. But every Ramstein tank saved the lives of the Ukrainian people.”
CIA Director William Burns traveled secretly to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to meet with Zelensky, a US official told Reuters on Thursday, declining to say when the trip took place.
The Washington Post, which first reported the visit, said it was late last week and that Burns told Zelensky his expectations on Russia’s military plans.
Fighting has been most intense in Ukraine’s industrialized eastern Donbass region, which Russia claimed annexed in September, along with two areas in the south.
The news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday that Germany’s foreign intelligence service said the Ukrainian army was losing three-digit numbers of soldiers every day. Neither Russia nor Ukraine regularly give details of their own losses, but Ukraine maintains that Russian losses exceed its own.