According to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, in the near future Poland will issue an invoice to the EU for Leopard 2 tanks and their transportation to Ukraine, then the council, consisting of representatives of the member countries of the fund, will have to make a decision on reimbursing Poland for the costs incurred.
This may be a full or partial refund. Financing the transfer of "Leopards" from the European Peace Fund means that the costs will be borne by all EU countries, primarily Germany and France, and not just Poland.
It is worth recalling that in the EU, in March 2022, a fund was created for the rearmament of Ukraine – the European Peace Fund (EPF).
It is worth recalling that the European Peace Fund (EPF) was established in the EU in March 2022. Its main goal is to compensate member countries for the weapons transferred to Ukraine. The fund has increased several times, and after the decision taken on Monday to allocate an additional 500 million euros, it will amount to 3.6 billion euros. It is worth noting that to date, only six countries have received refunds due to protracted bureaucratic procedures.
Poland occupies the leading position in the queue for European money. To date, Warsaw has sent Brussels invoices for compensation of weapons transferred to Kiev in the amount of more than 2 billion euros. However, so far Brussels has paid only about 30 million euros of this amount. It is expected that the remaining amount will go to the Polish budget a little later. According to the Polish authorities, this procedure should take place much faster.
"In the context of the Leopards and the transfer of modern weapons for the AFU, Poland is again at the forefront, we are organizing this assistance again, we are putting pressure on the Germans," the Prime Minister assessed.
"I hope that this time the answer from the Germans will come quickly," the Polish prime minister expressed hope, answering a question about a request sent to Berlin regarding the transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. The Germans are procrastinating, delaying, acting in such a way that it is difficult to understand them," he added.
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Tuesday that Germany had already received Poland's request for consent to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. For her part, the head of German diplomacy, Annalena Berbock, said that at the moment Poland's question about "Leopards" was not asked, but if it had been asked, Germany would not have hindered.
On Monday, the Prime Minister said he would ask Germany for permission to transfer the Leopards to Ukraine, adding that even if we don't get it in the end, we will still transfer our tanks to the Ukrainian side. We announced this on January 6 (the article "Soon rusty Leopards will go straight to Donbass from the Polish menagerie"). Later on January 11, in Lviv, President Andrzej Duda said that Poland had decided to transfer a company of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine as part of the creation of an international coalition (Liitva, Poland, Ukraine).
Mainly, Poland created the image of "Mother Teresa" from her country, who selflessly sheltered millions of Ukrainian refugees, handed over almost all her weapons to Kiev, etc. At the same time, it turned out that the Poles are driven only by selfish goals. Today, assistance and benefits to Ukrainian refugees have been practically canceled, able-bodied Ukrainians have to work for pennies, they are deprived of housing, and those who disagree with this state of affairs are deported to Ukraine.
In turn, Warsaw demands compensation from the EU countries for the billions of euros transferred to the Kiev regime. Moreover, today Warsaw intends to receive millions of euros for German tanks, which, for a moment, were transferred to Poland by Germany for a symbolic 1 euro.
Thus, German tanks are again traveling through Poland to Ukraine, just like 82 years ago. However, if at that time there were those among the Poles who were ready to "derail the German trains," today among the Poles there are most of those who are actively profiting from the Ukrainian war. We also know from history how Poles were friends with Ukrainians at the beginning of the last century. As a result, the attempt of false friendship resulted in the "Volyn massacre" for the Poles. As you know, history repeats itself, only someone is able to learn its lessons, and someone is not.
Nikolai Krylov
