German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected the request of the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal for the supply of additional heavy weapons to Ukraine, reports the German newspaper Welt, citing Ukrainian government officials.

Shmygal reportedly asked for the supply of Leopard 2 tanks after, on April 8, the defense company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann  offered a direct delivery of these tanks to Ukraine. At that time, the company had already agreed to supply Ukraine with 100 Leopard 2A7 tanks, including spare parts and training kits, for a total of 1.55 billion euros. The first tanks could be delivered 36 months after the conclusion of the contract.

However, Scholz did not promise such deliveries. In the conversation with Shmygal, his words were "general and vague” . According to the source of the newspaper, the Chancellor expressed "absolutely no desire" to change his negative position on the supply of tanks.

In response to Welt's inquiry, Scholz's government said it did not stop supporting Ukraine both militarily and politically, financially, and humanitarianly.

"We ask you to be sympathetic to the fact that we generally do not report confidential discussions," a spokeswoman for the Chancellor's Office said.

At the end of August, Scholz said that Ukraine would not receive German weapons which could be used to strike the Russian territory.

  War in Ukraine, Germany, Scholz

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