Ukraine war: Poland willing to bypass Germany's approval, Russia downgrades ties with Estonia

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki restated on Monday that his country could send its stock of German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine even without Berlin's permission. 

As a producer of the tanks, Germany has veto power on re-exporting and transferring the armoured vehicles. But as Germany struggles to make a decision on whether to transfer the Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv, Morawiecki has suggested creating a "small coalition of countries" which would go ahead with it on its own.

Morawiecki has been particularly vocal in his condemnation of Germany's reluctance towards sending its own Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and has previously stated that Berlin's "consent is a secondary issue".

The Polish prime minister's comment on Monday followed a statement by Germany's foreign minister Annalena Baerbok over the weekend, saying that the country "would not stand in the way" if Poland decided to send its tanks to Ukraine. She added that Warsaw has not yet made an official request to Berlin for transferring the tanks.

"We will ask for such permission, but this is an issue of secondary importance," Morawiecki told reporters on Monday. 

"Even if we did not get this approval […] we would still transfer our tanks together with others to Ukraine".

Moscow is downgrading diplomatic relations with NATO member Estonia after accusing Tallinn of "total Russophobia". 

The decision was announced by the Russian Foreign Ministry, which said it was Moscow's response to Tallinn moving to reduce the size of the Russian embassy. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it has ordered the Estonian envoy to Moscow to leave next month. Both countries will then be represented in each other's capitals by an interim chargé d'affaires instead of an ambassador.

"The