MELITOPOL, January 12. /TASS/. The supply of Leopard tanks to Kiev is a political step, which in particular denotes the interests of Poland in Ukraine, said Vladimir Rogov, who heads the "We are Together with Russia" movement.
"This is a fairly modern type of weaponry. It is obvious that they [tanks] should not be used by Ukrainian tankers who do not know this type of equipment well. The [tank] control system will require retraining, but there is no time, so this is more of a political step," Rogov said in an interview with TASS.
"It is clear that part of the support for the Zelensky regime is legitimized through Poland. We see that the Poles are ready [to pay] a fairly high price with the lives of their own citizens, soldiers of the Polish army, for the occupation of several regions, at the very least we can talk about the Lvov region, Ivano-Frankovsk, Ternopil and Volyn. The Polish political establishment is seriously talking about taking these territories under control," he noted
He added that "the transfer of a tank company will not change the situation on the front, as a tank company can literally burn out in one major battle."
"Leopard is not a superweapon, of course, although they will present it as such, as it was earlier with Javelin and NLAW, and HIMARS. <...> It’s not the weapons that win, but the people," Rogov said.
He drew attention to the fact that when covering the meeting in Lvov of the Presidents of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, the Ukrainian media used materials from the office of the leader of Poland.
"On the formally independent territory of Ukraine, they show the event through the eyes of Polish state media officials. And what they broadcast: "the residents of Lvov greet the President of Poland," Rogov noted.
According to him, the transfer of tanks to Kiev may be the first in a series of such deliveries.
"This is the first step, testing the so-called red lines, the way to legalize and launch all this," he said.
Earlier, Rogov told TASS that between 10,000 to 12,000 Polish citizens have taken part in hostilities in eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the special military operation.
On Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda, at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian and Lithuanian counterpart in Lvov, said that Warsaw would transfer a company of German-made Leopard tanks to Kiev as part of support for the international coalition. According to Duda, in order to implement this, a number of formal requirements must be met, and agreements must be made.