Berlin asked for permission to send German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Ben Wallace reveals
Sky News skrev:A country that operates German-made Leopard tanks has asked for permission from Berlin to give the heavy armour to Ukraine, Britain's defence secretary has revealed.
Ben Wallace did not say which nation he was referring to but it is likely to be Poland, which has made clear it would like to send some of its Leopard 2 main battle tanks to support Ukrainian forces in their fight against Russia.
Pressure is mounting on Olaf Scholz's government to allow the Leopard, one of the world's most lethal and modern tanks, to be part of a new wave of increasingly powerful military aid to Kyiv ahead of what many believe will be a new escalation in the war.
Om mindre än en halv dag börjar mötet vid flygbasen Ramstein!
U.S. announces $2.5 billion in additional military assistance for Ukraine
Reuters skrev:The latest assistance includes 59 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 90 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers, the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement.
The latest assistance also includes additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), eight Avenger air defense systems, tens of thousands of artillery rounds and about 2,000 anti-armor rockets, the Defense Department said.
USA:s två senaste paket motsvarar
två mekaniserade brigader:
U.S. Department of Defense skrev:The Kremlin’s most recent air attacks against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure again demonstrate the devastating impact of Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine. This package provides additional NASAMS munitions and Avenger air defense systems to help Ukraine counter a range of short and medium range threats and bolster Ukraine’s layered air defense. The 59 Bradley IFVs included in this package, together with the 50 Bradleys previously committed on January 6, and the 90 Stryker APCs will provide Ukraine with two brigades of armored capability.
Dessutom får Ukraina ytterligare 53 MRAP-fordon (totalt 580) samt 350 HMMWV-fordon (totalt över 1 700). Notera dock avsaknaden av GLSDB.
‘They have us over a barrel’: Inside the US and German standoff over sending tanks to Ukraine
CNN skrev:A Western official explained that for Scholz, the tanks question “is a red, red, red line. German tanks [fighting] Russia again. Moral issue. Understandable, from the historical viewpoint. Still, speaking of moral burden, I wish Germans were nowadays more sympathetic with Poland. Let alone with Ukraine. Didn’t German tanks kill Ukrainians 80 years ago as well? Now they can defend them from Russian barbaric aggression.”
[...]
On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki suggested that Warsaw may simply ignore any limits Germany seeks to impose on Poland’s export of its supply of the German-made tanks.
[...]
To date, the US has refused to send long-range missiles known as ATACMS to Ukraine out of concern that they could be used to attack targets inside Russia. But in keeping with London’s more forward-leaning attitude toward military support for Ukraine, some British officials have expressed an openness to supplying the longer-range systems, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Hur stor är enigheten inom Nato?
CIA director holds secret meeting with Zelensky on Russia’s next steps
Washington Post skrev:Top of mind for Zelensky and his senior intelligence officials during the meeting was how long Ukraine could expect U.S. and Western assistance to continue following Republicans’ takeover of the House and a drop-off in support of Ukraine aid among parts of the U.S. electorate, said people familiar with the meeting. All spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private high-level engagement.
Burns emphasized the urgency of the moment on the battlefield and acknowledged that at some point assistance would be harder to come by, the people said.
Zelensky and his aides came away from last week’s meeting with the impression that the Biden administration’s support for Kyiv remains strong and the $45 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine passed by Congress in December would last at least through July or August, those familiar with the discussion said. Kyiv is less certain about the prospects of Congress passing another multibillion-dollar supplemental assistance package as it did last spring, they said.
Burns och Zelenskyj har diskuterat framtida stöd i en verklighet där det finns några högerradikala kongressledamöter i USA:s representanthus.
Antalet visuellt bekräftade ryska förluster uppgår till 8 785 enheter, varav 1 630 stridsvagnar. Vem är i störst behov av mer materiel?