Poland to convince Germany to send heavy weapons to Ukraine
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Not only Poland supplied Ukraine with weapons that amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, but it also wants to convince Germany to send Kiev heavy weapons.
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Polish government spokesperson Piotr Muller
On Thursday, Polish government spokesperson Piotr Muller said that Poland supplied Ukraine with weapons that amount to “billions of zlotys,” which is equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars.
“I can say that we’re talking about billions of zlotys,” Muller told the Polsat news channel.
Since February, Poland has sent military drones, ammunition, and MANPADs to Ukraine. As per Muller, the government wanted to put its military aid spending on paper after doubts related to the true scale of Poland’s assistance for Ukraine.
What about heavy weapons?
In the same context, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said today, Thursday, that he would try to persuade Germany into sending heavy weapons to Ukraine after Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared that his country had run out of stocks.
"Germany’s position is ambivalent. I will talk to Chancellor Scholz to convince him that we are at a historical junction," Morawiecki said at a news conference.
In a speech on Tuesday, Scholz said that the German armed forces had reached their limit in sending supplies to Ukraine. Decades of spending cuts have remarkably shrunk Germany's armed forces' size and equipment range.
On another level, Morawiecki said he would put pressure on Scholz to abandon Russian gas, oil, and coal imports too, saying it was "the most radical plan yet, compared to other countries that buy Russian hydrocarbons."
Germany considers exchanging arms with Slovenia to arm Ukraine
Germany is pondering giving armored vehicles to Slovenia in return for a shipment of Soviet-made T-72 tanks to Ukraine in light of mounting pressures on Berlin to pump more arms to Kiev as the war in the country unfolds, German media reported earlier today.
Under the swap deal, Germany will send Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Fuchs armored personnel carriers to its eastern NATO partner, Germany's n-tv broadcaster said.
Slovenia, in exchange, requested more modern hardware, including Puma and Boxer armored vehicles and Leopard 2 battle tanks.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had come under fire over his refusal to send heavy weapons to Ukraine from his country's stock, though his decision was backed by the German military.
"We would no longer be able to react to eventualities, and that would significantly weaken our defensive capability," Bundeswehr vice-chief Lieutenant General Markus Laubenthal had said Wednesday to explain his country's decision not to provide IFVs to Ukraine.
According to the official, if Germany were to do that, it would be unable to defend itself, promising Ukraine some one billion euros to buy weapons instead.
