In breakthrough, minister says Germany won’t block Poland from giving Ukraine tanks

ASSOCIATED PRESS KYIV, Ukraine — The speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament warned Sunday that countries supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons

risked their own destruction, a message that followed new pledges of armored vehicles, air defense systems and other equipment but not the battle tanks Kyiv requested.

Ukraine’s supporters pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine during a meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday, though the new commitments

were overshadowed by a failure to agree on Ukraine’s urgent request for German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks. The issue appeared to move close to a resolution late Sunday

when Germany’s top diplomat said her country would not object if Poland decided to send some of its Leopards to Ukraine. French TV channel LCI posted clips from an

interview with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in which she said her government has not received a formal request for approval from Warsaw but added “if we were asked, we would

not stand in the way.” Earlier Sunday, the speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, said that governments giving more

powerful weapons to Ukraine could cause a “global tragedy that would destroy their countries.” “Supplies of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would lead to a global

catastrophe,” he said. “If Washington and NATO supply weapons that would be used for striking peaceful cities and making attempts to seize our territory as they threaten to do, it

would trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.”