Polish PM expects allies to send up to 100 tanks to Ukraine

Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, has said that Poland is trying to convince European allies to provide Ukraine with up to 100 Western-made main battle tanks.

Talking to Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Morawiecki said that he was trying to "encourage" German Chancellor Ofal Scholz to become more involved in helping Ukraine and added that Germany bears a special responsibility.

"Germany with their policy, dependency on Russian gas, created a lot of uncertainty and instability in the first place, so they should now feel more responsible to support Ukraine," he said. "They should help with weapon delivery to Ukraine even more, and I tried to persuade Olaf to do so as quickly to possible," he said.

Morawiecki also told Bloomberg that he hopes that EU countries will committ up to 100 battle tanks for Ukraine.

"We earmarked our 14 Leopard tanks and now we also wait for Leopards from Denmark, Finland, Germany and other countries of the European Union, because we want to inspire others to gather more tanks, to have potentially 60, 70, up to 100 of very modern tanks, which can make a difference on the battlefield of Ukraine," he said.

Asked whether he is not afraid that Russia will perceive this as an escalation of the war and may resort to the use of nuclear weapons, Morawiecki replied:

"I don't think so. Everybody has to count with it, because of course nothing is beyond our imagination, but on the other hand, I don't think it will happen. Here even China was very much on our side and saying to the Kremlin, to Putin: don't do that because it will mean a completely different war, so I'm cautiously optimistic on this."