Germany will decide “soon” on whether to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine or approve the export of German-made equipment by other countries, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, as pressure mounts on Europe’s largest economy. The German government has to sign off on any transfers of the tanks, around 2,000 of which are scattered across Europe.
Kyiv has implored Western allies to send battle tanks to help boost its fighting capacity and retake territory Russia has captured in Ukraine’s south and east. Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister tweeted that the country has been asking Germany for Leopard tanks since early March. “Maybe it’s time to speed up this process?” Andrij Melnyk said. Britain recently became the first country to promise Western-produced main battle tanks to Ukraine.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
3. From our correspondents
Is apocalypse near? How the Doomsday Clock tracks nuclear, climate threats: The Doomsday Clock is not an actual clock but a symbol designed by scientists serving as a metaphor for how close we are to destroying our world. For more than seven decades, the clock has been used to convey the level of risk from existential threats, from nuclear weapons to climate change, Ellen Francis writes.
The world has been 100 seconds away from “midnight” — the symbolic hour of apocalypse — since 2020. Tuesday will be the first update since Russia’s war in Ukraine revived fears of a nuclear disaster in a year of fires and floods around the world.
Claire Parker contributed to this report.
