Russian ambassador: German tanks being sent to Ukraine ‘extremely dangerous’

Russia’s ambassador to Germany on Wednesday condemned the country’s decision to send tanks to support Ukrainian defenses, saying it is “extremely dangerous” and will push the war to a “new level of confrontation.” 

Ambassador Sergey Nechaev argued Germany’s action shows it is not interested in a diplomatic resolution to the conflict and wants to have “permanent escalation” and “unlimited flooding” of Ukraine with weapons, according to a statement posted on the website of Russia’s embassy in Berlin and reported by the Russian state-run media outlet TASS.

“With the permission of the German leadership, battle tanks with German crosses will be dispatched again to the ‘Eastern front’ which will inevitably lead to the deaths of not only Russian soldiers but also civilians,” Nechaev said. 

Germany announced on Wednesday that it plans to send 14 of its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine after weeks of pressure to do so from Western allies. It will also approve requests from other countries to send the German-made tanks to Ukraine. 

Poland has been among the Western countries most vocal about wanting to send the tanks to Ukraine, but Germany needs to sign off on sending any of its tanks to countries outside NATO. 

Germany’s decision appears likely to help spur the Biden administration to approve sending M1 Abrams tanks to support Ukraine. The United States has also shown hesitancy to send its tanks to Ukraine in recent weeks despite encouragement from its Western allies. 

Nechaev said the German government sending the tanks abandons the “difficult path of post-war reconciliation” between Russia and Germany, referring to when the two countries fought each other during World War II. 

“It destroys the remnants of mutual trust, brings irreparable damage to already poor Russian-German relations and cast doubt on the possibility of their normalization in the foreseeable future,” he said.