The new Ukrainian ambassador Makeyev says he feels every day that Germany is helpful. Perhaps this support will also soon be shown with battle tanks of the “Leopard” type – the Melnyk successor has reason to hope for that.
The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Oleksiy Makejev, expects the delivery of battle tanks from Germany. “We have reason to hope that the decision will be made to deliver Leopard 2 from Germany directly to Ukraine,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. There are discussions with the federal government on this. “We need these battle tanks,” Makeyev emphasized.
It was “time to stop talking about not wanting to provoke Russia. What else is going to happen? How many Bucha, Mariupol or Isjums – places of rape and mass graves – should there be?” Germany has “shown leadership” with the delivery of the IRIS-T missile defense system, said the diplomat, who has been ambassador to Germany since the end of October.
“And we expect this leadership role in other weapon systems. These include main battle tanks and armored vehicles such as leopards, martens, foxes and dingoes,” Makeyev said. “We’re in talks with the federal government.” When asked whether this would also include the direct delivery of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, the ambassador confirmed: “Yes, we are talking about that.”
Ukraine’s goal is to win the war, Makeyev said. “We have learned over the past eight years that negotiations with Russia do not lead to peace. We don’t need mediators, we need allies.” The West must “act as a team and we must be able to draw on everything that team has.”
The ambassador also called for help with reconstruction. “We made lists and shared them with the Germans. We need generators and transformers the most,” he said. “The first deliveries are already underway.” It was clear to the Ukrainian government “that the Russians would extend their war against the civilian population to our energy infrastructure in the fall,” said the diplomat. “We expect that 40 percent of our gross domestic product will be lost this year.”
In an interview with ARD Tagesthemen, Makejev also said on Friday that he felt every day that Germany was helpful. He appealed to the Germans: “Please support us as long as possible, we will win this war and then there will be no more refugees.”
