There are tacit agreements between NATO member states not to supply tanks and combat aircraft to Ukraine, German news agency DPA and Die Zeit reported, citing sources.

German media interlocutors say that NATO countries, despite their support for Ukraine, seek to prevent a direct confrontation between the Alliance and Russia and therefore refuse to supply Kiev with certain types of weapons.

The agreements are not formalized and leave NATO countries a certain freedom of action, but Poland allegedly refused to supply Ukraine with MiG-29 fighter jets and other countries, in particular Germany, refused to supply heavy armored vehicles, the Voice of America reports.

A number of countries, including Poland and the Czech Republic, sent armored vehicles to Ukraine after the Russian invasion, but the equipment in question is of Soviet models. Western-designed tanks and combat vehicles have not been supplied to Ukraine.

"There are fears, for example, that Russia may officially regard the deliveries of Western combat tanks and combat aircraft as an act of war and then take military retaliation," the DPA wrote.