President Andrzej Duda of Poland has declared that Ukraine will not be able to impede Russia unless it obtains up-to-date military technology from its allies in the West.
“What Ukraine needs is more and more weapons,” Duda said at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos on Tuesday, adding that this was what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had said at the beginning of Russia’s invasion.
President Duda, along with his counterparts from Lithuania and North Macedonia as well as the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and the Spanish foreign minister, took part in a debate headlined ‘In defence of Europe.’
“There is only one message coming from this war since its beginning,” the president said, adding this was a call “for weapons, more and more weapons, and military support.”
“If western countries continue to send modern military equipment to Ukraine, Ukrainians will have enough potential to stop Russia,”
Duda said.
He also expressed hope that allied countries would hand over to Ukraine several or several dozen Leopard 2 tanks to make it possible for Ukraine to form an armoured brigade.
“We have been trying to build a coalition of states, which, I hope, will give Leopard tanks to Ukraine,” Duda said and added that “Germany must approve such a hand-over as contracts envisage that requirement.”
According to Pawel Szrot, head of the President’s Office, Finland, Denmark, and Great Britain have declared their participation in the coalition. On Tuesday, Poland’s president expressed hope that Germany would also join the initiative.
Poland is ready to donate a company of 14 Leopard tanks, but any handover requires the approval of Berlin because Germany controls the export license for the vehicles.
Duda made the offer during a meeting in the Ukrainian town of Lviv with his Ukrainian and Lithuanian counterparts on January 11.