Ukrainian officials quit in major shakeup
- Several senior Ukrainian officials have resigned in a major political shakeup linked to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s anti-corruption drive.
- Poland officially asks Germany to re-export Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, heaping more pressure on Berlin over weapons supplies.
Polish PM ‘hopes’ for quick reply from Germany on tanks
Poland’s prime minister has said he is hoping for a quick response from Germany on whether or not Warsaw can re-export German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
“I hope that this answer from Germany will come quickly, because the Germans are delaying, dodging, acting in a way that is difficult to understand,” Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference.
Morawiecki also said Poland will ask the European Union for compensation for the cost of the units it wants to send to Kyiv, calling the move a “test of good will”.
His comments came shortly after the Polish government submitted an official request to Berlin to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.
More Ukrainian officials resign as government shake-up continues
Two deputy ministers have resigned from Ukraine’s Ministry of Communities and Territories Development as part of a widespread exit of senior officials from the government linked to a crackdown on corruption by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Vyacheslav Negoda and Ivan Lukerya both confirmed the moves on their Facebook pages.
German chancellor facing decisive moment over tank exports: AJ correspondent
Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, says German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will have to “make his mind up” on whether to permit the re-export of German-made battle tanks to Ukraine following Poland’s formal request to do so.
“He knows that around the cabinet he chairs, there are ministers who have openly said that if there is a request to release tanks that Germany has sold to other European Union countries that Berlin won’t stand in their way,” Kane said.
“But he also knows that he would then be a chancellor who is allowing German-made offensive weapons systems to be used against forces of the Russian Federation,” he added.
“That is a central issue for any German chancellor given the historical legacy that this country has vis-a-vis Russia.”
Russia’s military reforms respond to NATO, Ukraine: Gerasimov
Russia’s new military reforms respond to the possible expansion of NATO and the use of Kyiv by the “collective West” to wage a hybrid war against Russia, the newly-appointed general in charge of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine has said.
“Today, such threats include the aspirations of the North Atlantic Alliance to expand to Finland and Sweden, as well as the use of Ukraine as a tool for waging a hybrid war against our country,” Valery Gerasimov told the news website Argumenty i Fakty in remarks published late on Monday.
It was the first public remark by Gerasimov, who is also the chief of Russia’s military general staff, since his January 11 appointment to lead Moscow’s war effort.
Under Moscow’s new military plan, an army corps will be added to Karelia in Russia’s north, which borders Finland.
In Ukraine, Russia will add three motorised rifle divisions as part of combined arms formations in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions – two of four partly-occupied Ukrainian territories that Moscow moved to unilaterally annex last September.
