Enlarge image
The Foreign Ministers of Lithuania (Gabrielius Landsbergis, left), Latvia (Edgars Rinkēvičs) and Estonia (Eva-Maria Liimets, right) with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in April 2022
Photo: TOMS KALNINS/EPA
The foreign ministers of the Baltic countries have called on Germany to immediately support Ukraine with Leopard main battle tanks.
"We, the foreign ministers of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, call on Germany to immediately deliver Leopard tanks to Ukraine," wrote Latvia's chief diplomat Edgars Rinkēvičs on Twitter.
This is "necessary to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and quickly restore peace in Europe".
"Germany, as the most powerful state in Europe, has a special responsibility in this regard," Rinkēvičs added.
At the meeting of the Ukraine contact group at the US Ramstein Air Force Base in Rhineland-Palatinate on Friday, no decision was made on the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
The new Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) first ordered an examination of the stocks of Leopard tanks for a possible delivery to Ukraine.
In addition, the participants in the Ukraine meeting pledged numerous other armaments to ward off the Russian attack.
Kyiv has long been demanding the delivery of western main battle tanks.
Even before the meeting in Ramstein, Poland and other EU and NATO countries had declared their willingness to provide the Ukrainian army with German-made Leopard tanks.
However, the federal government would have to agree to this.
After the meeting, Federal Defense Minister Pistorius said that the issue of export permits was "discussed but not decided" in Ramstein.
Now Kyiv is pressing for haste.
"They will help Ukraine with the necessary weapons anyway and realize that there is no other way than to end the war with Russia's defeat," Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter.
“Every day of delay means the death of Ukrainians.
Think faster.«
Selenskyj at funeral service for Interior Minister
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended the funeral service for Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyy, who recently died in a helicopter crash.
The 44-year-old came to the event in the Ukrainian House in Kyiv accompanied by his wife Olena, the state news agency Ukrinform reported.
At the ceremony, all the coffins of the nine helicopter occupants who died in the crash on Wednesday were laid out.
According to official information, Monastyrskyj was on his way to the front when the helicopter crashed.
Also on board were a deputy minister and a state secretary, both of whom also died.
A total of 14 people were killed in the accident in the Kiev suburb of Brovary, including a small child.
The helicopter crashed next to a kindergarten.
The memorial service for the victims on the ground took place in Brovary at the same time as the commemoration ceremony in Kyiv.
The cause of the crash is still unclear.
The SBU secret service is investigating whether it was a technical failure, pilot error or sabotage.
kko/AFP/Reuters
