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Scholz says Germany will bear costs to provide Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine

The German cabinet said earlier that the country decided to send 14 Leopard 2А6 tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries to re-export their German-made tanks

BERLIN, January 25. /TASS/. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday wasn’t immediately able to state the cost of providing German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, but said Germany would cover them itself.

"I can’t say exactly what they are, but we will cover [the expenses]," he said at a joint news conference with Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, when asked how much it will cost to donate the tanks to Ukraine.

The German cabinet said earlier that the country decided to send 14 Leopard 2А6 tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries to re-export their German-made tanks. Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev called Berlin’s move "extremely dangerous" and warned it was shifting the conflict to "the next level of confrontation." Berlin’s choice, the diplomat said, signaled "the final refusal of Germany to recognize historical responsibility" for Nazi crimes committed during the Second World War. He said the decision cast into oblivion "the difficult path of post-war reconciliation between the Russians and Germans.".

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