Berlin’s decision to give battle tanks to Ukraine has been criticised by Moscow, which says Germany is ignoring its “historical responsibility to Russia” because of Nazi crimes during World War II.

The Russian Embassy in Germany said on Wednesday that the decision to send 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv and let allies re-export the same models would take the war in Ukraine to a new level and lead to “permanent escalation.”

“With the approval of Germany’s leaders, battle tanks with German crosses will be sent back to the “eastern fronT.””

– Sergei Nechayev

Ambassador Sergei Nechayev said, “This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation and goes against what German politicians have said about how they don’t want the Federal Republic of Germany to be drawn into it.”

“It destroys the last bits of mutual trust, makes the already bad state of Russian-German relations even worse, and makes it less likely that things will get better in the near future.”

In a post on the Telegram app, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, said that Germany’s decision proved that a “pre-planned war” was being planned against Moscow.

Kyiv has been asking for Western tanks for months, saying that they are desperately needed to give troops the firepower and mobility they need to break through Russian defence lines and retake land in the east and south that is currently under Russian control.

Moscow has said many times that tanks from the West will “burn,” and it has rejected the idea that they will change the outcome of the 11-month conflict. Instead, it has warned that they will only make things worse for the Ukrainians.

With Germany’s move, Poland, Finland, and a number of other European countries will be able to offer Ukraine tanks from their own stocks of Leopard 2s.

“With the approval of Germany’s leaders, battle tanks with German crosses will be sent back to the “eastern front,” where they will kill not only Russian soldiers but also Russian civilians,” Nechayev said.

The UK has already promised to send 14 of its Challenger 2 battle tanks to Kyiv, while the US is about to change its mind and send more than 30 of its own M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

Info source – Al Jazeera