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Andrew Meldrum, Associated Press Andrew Meldrum, Associated Press
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The Pentagon will hold a news briefing Tuesday as Germany weighs making a decision on sending tanks to Ukraine.
The event is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. ET. Watch the briefing in the player above.
Poland formally requested permission from Germany to transfer a modest number of its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Germany builds the high-tech armor, and Warsaw needs Berlin’s permission to send them to a non-NATO country.
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Last June, the EU agreed to put Ukraine on a path toward membership in the bloc. In order to join, countries must meet economic and political conditions, including a commitment to the rule of law and other democratic principles.
Ukraine has applied to join NATO, too, but the military alliance is not about to offer an invitation, because of the country’s contested borders, defense establishment shortcomings and, in part, its corruption issues.
Meanwhile, the delivery of an expected 14 Leopard tanks from Poland appeared to be a foregone conclusion, with its timing the main outstanding question.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Sunday that Berlin wouldn’t seek to stop Poland providing the versatile tanks to Kyiv if it asked, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Tuesday the Poles — and other Western allies he didn’t identify — are already training Ukrainian soldiers in Poland on the Leopards.
READ MORE: Finland’s foreign minister hints at joining NATO without Sweden
German officials confirmed to the dpa news agency they had received the Polish application and said it would be assessed “with due urgency.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for the speedy delivery of new weapons to Ukraine, where a broad battlefield stalemate in winter is expected to give way to new offensives in the spring.
“At this crucial moment in the war, we need to provide Ukraine with heavier and more advanced systems, and we need to do it faster,” Stoltenberg said Tuesday after talks with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in Berlin.
By Monika Scislowska, Associated Press
By Zeke Miller, Mark Long, Associated Press
By Geir Moulson, Jamey Keaten, Associated Press
Andrew Meldrum, Associated Press Andrew Meldrum, Associated Press
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