Germany has accused it of blocking Ukraine’s request to buy heavy weapons

Rejected items include Leopard tanks, MLRS, armored personnel carriers and howitzers.

Now Germany says it will instead seek agreements with unnamed allies to supply Ukraine with tanks and other heavy weapons from their Soviet-era stockpiles.

Under the proposed replacement, Berlin will pay to replace the items in question with new, modern weapons from German manufacturers.

“It’s about tanks, about armored personnel carriers, about different options that individual countries have to give up. We are talking about this at the moment and now it is happening very fast, “Ms Lambrecht told German television.

“It’s a matter of the next few days. All military experts are convinced that the next two weeks will be decisive weeks in Ukraine’s battle against Russia, and we must support this battle, so it is very quick. “

Mr Scholz came under heavy pressure after refusing to supply Ukraine with more weapons than German military supplies this week.

He claims that this will leave Germany unable to defend itself or fulfill its obligations to NATO.

Instead, he promised to “enable Ukraine to buy commercially produced military equipment” and promised 1 billion euros (830 million British pounds) to buy Kyiv all the weapons it needs.