KYIV: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Germany on Tuesday of ignoring Kyiv’s pleas for Leopard tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles, saying Berlin offered only “abstract fears and excuses” for not providing such military hardware.

“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now — to liberate people and save them from genocide,” Kuleba tweeted, as Ukraine presses a counter-offensive to retake land in the east and south from Russian forces.

Ukraine recaptures more ground as Russia strikes back

“Not a single rational argument on why these weapons cannot be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses. What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?” he wrote, in unusually blunt language.