Minister: Germany won’t block Poland giving Ukraine tanks

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — 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.”