Russian envoy slams Germany's decision to give Leopard tanks to Ukraine

By Elena Teslova and Burc Eruygur

MOSCOW/ISTANBUL (AA) - Germany's decision to send Kyiv Leopard 2 tanks takes the war in Ukraine to a new level, the Russian ambassador to Berlin said on Wednesday.

"This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation and contradicts the statements of German politicians about Germany's unwillingness to get involved in it," Sergey Nechayev said in a statement, published on the embassy's website.

His remarks came soon after Germany announced on Wednesday that it would send 14 Leopard 2A6 battle tanks to Ukraine and allow its allies to export them to do the same.

"On Jan. 25, 2023, the German government approved the delivery of heavy Leopard 2 battle tanks to the Kyiv regime. Other countries armed with such equipment are allowed to re-export it to Ukraine."

In his statement, Nechayev added that the move showed that Germany and its closest allies were not interested in a diplomatic solution in Ukraine, but instead were "set on its permanent escalation" and "unlimited pumping" of Ukraine with "new deadly weapons."

"The 'red lines' are in the past," he asserted, referring to previous statements by Western politicians that some kinds of arms could not be given to Ukraine to avoid further escalation.

According to Nechayev's assessment, Germany's choice amounted to a "final refusal" to recognize its historical responsibility for the crimes of Nazism in World War II that "have no statute of limitations," as well as to bury the memory of the difficult of post-war reconciliation of Russians and Germans.

"With the approval of the German leadership, battle tanks with German crosses will again be sent to the 'eastern front,' which will inevitably lead to the death of not only Russian soldiers, but also civilians," he said, referring to the Nazi tanks that were also marked with crosses.

Nechayev pointed out that the decision came just days before the anniversary of the end of the World War II siege of Leningrad, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands Soviet civilians

Germany's latest decision to allow the tanks' delivery to Ukraine thus "destroys the remnants of mutual trust, causes irreparable damage to the already deplorable state of Russian-German relations, calls into question the possibility of their normalization in the foreseeable future," said the envoy.