BERLIN, May 3. /TASS/. Ever fewer Germans tend to approve of weapons supplies to Ukraine, as follows from a Forsa opinion poll, held at the request of the RTL and N-TV television broadcasters.

As follows from the results of the poll published on Tuesday, at the beginning of April 55% of respondents were in favor of supplying attack and heavy weapons to Ukraine. Now the idea of such support from Germany to Ukraine enjoys the support of 46%, while the percentage of those who object to providing weapons to Kiev has been up from 33% to 44%.

Most polled Germans believe that the situation in Ukraine can be settled only by means of talks and diplomacy, while 24% see only a military solution.

The poll was conducted on April 29-May 2. An audience of 1,004 was questioned.

Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that Germany was ready to supply to Ukraine air defense launchers Gepard. Earlier, the DPA news agency quoted its sources as saying that the German government was going to supply Soviet-made T-72 tanks via Slovenia using a "circular exchange" arrangement. Slovenia is to hand over to Kiev tanks from its own reserves, while Germany pledged to replace them with Marder and Fuchs armored vehicles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 launched a special military operation in Ukraine following a request for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics. After that the United States, the European Union and Britain and also a number of other countries introduced large-scale sanctions against Russia and stepped up weapons supplies to the Ukrainian authorities.