Enlarge image
Andrzej Duda with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in Kyiv on Sunday
Photo: IMAGO/Sarsenov Daniiar/Ukraine Preside/ IMAGO/ZUMA Wire
Poland's President Andrzej Duda has accused the German government of breaching its promise to deliver tanks to his country.
In an interview with the TV channel Welt on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the head of state of the NATO partner referred to a commitment from Berlin to deliver tanks to replace tanks handed over to Ukraine by Poland.
"You have not fulfilled this promise," added Duda, referring to the federal government.
»And frankly, we are very disappointed about it.«
"We have provided Ukraine with a large number of tanks," the Polish president said.
"By doing that, we have weakened our own military potential and we have used up our own military stocks." That's why Poland was also hoping for support from Germany.
A large part of the tank arsenal in the Polish Armed Forces consists of German Leopard tanks.
"So if we had been supported by Germany, if we had received a replacement in the form of a ring exchange, then we would have been very happy," said Duda.
"In fact, we received such a promise and Germany promised to supply us with these tanks."
The Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk had previously made a similar statement in an interview with SPIEGEL.
Poland supports its neighbor Ukraine against the Russian attack with Soviet T-72 tanks.
Shortly after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Warsaw handed over almost all of its 240 Russian-made tanks to the neighboring country, as the Ukrainian army is trained on these models.
Warsaw has already made it clear that it expects compensation from NATO partners, including Berlin.
The Bundeswehr itself is blank
Germany announced such a ring exchange with the Czech Republic last week.
Berlin wants to provide the NATO partner with 15 Leopard 2 tanks from industrial stocks and use them to compensate for deliveries of heavy weapons from the Czech Republic to Ukraine.
Unlike the Czech Republic, however, Poland insists on modern tanks, the gaps must be filled with the latest German Leopard tanks, anything else would endanger Poland's ability to defend itself, they say.
more on the subject
Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister on Germany's role in the war: »We expect more from the largest country in the EU« An interview by Jan Puhl
Dispute with Poland over weapons for Ukraine: "Unfortunately nothing has been implemented" by Matthias Gebauer and Jan Puhl
According to SPIEGEL information, the ring exchange talks between Germany and Poland are hopelessly deadlocked.
Last week, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had to admit to a confidential group of coalition politicians that she had little hope of reaching an agreement with Warsaw.
The reason: The Bundeswehr itself does not yet have the latest Leopard models, only a small part of the German Panzer Army is currently being upgraded by the industry.
As a result, the responsible state secretary from the military department could not make any promises during talks with Poland and had to end the negotiations without success.
From the defense department it was said that a quick delivery of Leopard tanks at the latest stage of construction was simply not possible.
Attempts to swear the partners from Poland to a compromise have failed.
For example, it was offered that Poland would initially receive somewhat older Leopard models, which would then be successively modernized or replaced with new systems in the coming years.
slue/dpa
