The dispute between Poland and Germany over the tank ring exchange for Ukraine is entering the next round. Criticism of a new offer comes from Warsaw. Foreign Minister Baerbock rejects this.
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak has criticized previous German offers for a tank ring exchange as insufficient. The German government recently submitted an offer to Warsaw for the delivery of 20 Leopard 2A4 tanks, the politician from the Law and Justice Party (PiS) said in an excerpt of an interview published by the news portal wPolityce.pl.
Blaszczak complained that it would take around 12 months to bring the tanks into an operational condition. In addition, the Polish side is counting on at least one tank battalion, which must include 44 tracked vehicles. Blaszczak left open how the negotiations will continue. "Certainly there are gifts that should only be accepted with great caution," said the 52-year-old. "Their low value later serves as a useful curtain to cover up a much more brutal reality." The NATO member state Poland had supported the neighboring country Ukraine with more than 200 tanks of Soviet design in the fight against the Russian aggressor.
"The German promises to swap tank rings have turned out to be deceptive maneuvers," Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek previously told Der Spiegel. First, the Germans offered the Poles tanks "older than those we gave to Ukraine." This offer is "not to be accepted because we have no interest in deteriorating the condition of our armament and in training our soldiers on equipment from the 1960s". That is why they are now relying on the help of other NATO partners.
From circles of the Ministry of Defense in Berlin it was already said on Friday that Poland had been offered 100 available Leopard 1 tanks in good condition as compensation at an early stage. Poland rejected this as too old. It had become clear that Poland insisted on the Leopard 2. However, these cannot be supplied from Bundeswehr stocks.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock admitted on Friday evening that the ring exchange for arms deliveries to Ukraine was not working as planned, but rejected the sharp criticism from the Polish government. "It was clear from the start that we wouldn't be able to replace every single tank overnight with a snap of our fingers," Baerbock said in response to the allegations from Poland in the "Bild" newspaper. "Of course they can say we want more from you, but the tanks they have can still be delivered directly to Ukraine."
