EU should provide tanks to Ukraine, says European Parliament chief

Roberta Metsola, the European Parliament speaker said on Wednesday (October 5) that the European Union should provide tanks to Ukraine amid its ongoing war with Russia. He also said that the bloc should speed up procedure of including Ukraine.

The centre-right Maltese official said she would relay the message to EU leaders at a summit in Prague on Friday.

The Ukrainians "need weapons that they can fight with in order to regain their territory, and that means, for example, Leopard II tanks that several members states have," Metsola told AFP.

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Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24 this year. After sustained victories on the battlefield in first few months, the Russian forces have had to retreat in the face of Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Ukraine has long been demanding deliveries of German-designed Leopard II tanks. However, Germany has preferred that any such transfer be a part of wider accord among Western allies.

Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and non-EU members Norway, Switzerland and Turkey altogether possess some 2,000 of the tanks, according to an EU official.

Metsola, who was the first head of an EU institution to visit Kyiv, back in April, said countries willing to give tanks would be reimbursed from an EU fund, the European Peace Facility, which has released 2.5 billion euros ($2.5 billion) for Ukraine military purchases.

"I think these are discussions we need to have now, especially because we are seeing Russia is escalating but also on the flipside when we are seeing Ukraine successfully pushing the Russians out," she said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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