Olaf Scholz explains his change of position on Leopard tanks before the German Parliament

At last the resistance has fallen German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, to deliver their coveted Leopard tanks to Ukraine. After weeks of pressure from inside and outside the country, Scholz explained to the Bundestag his change of position and his objectives in sending these tanks:

“Our goal is to quickly supply two (Leopard) tank battalions together with our allies. There are many countries that would like to supply, and we are going to coordinate and involve them to make that happen step by step,” the foreign minister said. “We will provide training, logistics, ammunition and maintenance of the systems, and as I have said, we will allow allied countries to supply.”

Scholz has assured that he wants to avoid a military escalation. In kyiv, the announcement has been very well received.

The Ukrainian president, who had been calling for Western tanks for months, expressed his gratitude to the chancellor and all “friends in Germany” on Twitter.

The Polish prime minister, who went so far as to push to deliver his tanks to Ukraine even without German permission, has also expressed his gratitude.

The Russian reaction has not been long in coming:

“The main thing is a completely obvious overestimation of the potential that (the supply of tanks) would add to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This is another fallacy, quite deep. We reiterate that these tanks will burn like all the others,” the spokesman for the tank said. Russian President Dimitry Peskov.

The Russian ambassador to Germany has accused Berlin of abdicate their historical responsibility in World War II. Russian President Vladimir Putin has questioned whether Germany is a sovereign country.

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