Poland requests German permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine
The Guardian skrev:The application was submitted to the German economy ministry, as confirmed by government sources who told Spiegel that the paperwork was “correct and complete”. Poland has specifically asked for the export licence for 14 tanks. Under the purchase agreement it has to acquire Germany’s permission, as the land where they were manufactured, to export them.
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Armin Papperger, the chief executive of Rheinmetall, the manufacturers of the tanks, confirmed that 29 Leopard 2A4s due to be sent to Slovakia and the Czech Republic as part of a multilateral exchange programme – in which those countries are to give their Soviet-era weaponry to Ukraine and receive modern replacements from Germany in return – could be ready by March but that it would be up to Berlin to decide what to do with them. The tanks are currently being refurbished by Rheinmetall.
Papperger confirmed that the company has a further 22 tanks that need an extensive overhaul and are not likely to be ready before the end of the year. He added: “Some of these tanks have been standing around unused for up to a decade and their hatches left open so that they have gone mouldy inside.” They would have to be taken apart, cleaned and painstakingly reconstructed “like you would a car”, he said.
Polen ansöker om att få leverera 14 Leopard 2 till Ukraina. Vidare uppger den tyska vapentillverkaren Rheinmetall att företaget också kan ge stridsvagnar.
12 Nations Pledge Leopard Tanks to Ukraine
Atlas News skrev:12 nations have pledged to, altogether, supply around 100 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The coalition of nations is formed of both NATO and non-NATO nations, with Poland and Finland providing the bulk of the delivery. All they are waiting for is German approval. The Leopards are manufactured in Germany, and according to German law government permission must be granted for re-export to Ukraine.
The 100 from the coalition falls short of the 300 Western tanks Ukraine is asking for, however, a spokesperson for German arms company Rheinmetall has announced they have the ability to supply Ukraine with 139 Leopard tanks. Their 139 is a mix of 51 Leopard 2’s, and 88 of the older Leopard 1’s.
Tydligen är det inte bara Polen och Tyskland som har tyska stridsvagnar att ge till Ukraina. Tillhör Sverige denna grupp?
U.S. Leans Toward Providing Abrams Tanks to Ukraine
WSJ skrev:The Biden administration is leaning toward sending a significant number of Abrams M1 tanks to Ukraine and an announcement of the deliveries could come this week, U.S. officials said.
The announcement would be part of a broader diplomatic understanding with Germany in which Berlin would agree to send a smaller number of its own Leopard 2 tanks and would also approve the delivery of more of the German-made tanks by Poland and other nations. It would settle a trans-Atlantic disagreement over the tanks that had threatened to open fissures as the war drags into the end of its first year.
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The shift in the U.S. position follows a call on Jan. 17 between President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in which Mr. Biden agreed to look into providing the Abrams tanks against the judgment of the Pentagon. A senior German official said that the issue had been the subject of intense negotiation between Washington and Berlin for more than a week and appeared to be on the way to resolution.
Liksom amerikanska stridsvagnar! Minns någon Kuwaitkriget?
The type of aircraft Ukraine might receive in the future was determined – Ukrainian Air Force Spokesman
Militarnyi skrev:“Our military pilots visited the United States, funds for the training of our pilots were allocated… That is, the aviation topic has never left the agenda. The type of aircraft likely to be provided to Ukraine and the corresponding training terms (for personnel – ed.) were already determined,” Yurii Ihnat said.
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Also, in his video message addressing the participants of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine, who met last Friday in Germany, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called for longer-range missiles and F-16 fighter jets to be provided to Ukraine. It was also announced earlier that the Netherlands is ready to consider the possibility of transferring F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Liksom västerländskt stridsflyg?
Russia’s ‘Elite’ Shadow Army Edges Into Complete Collapse
The Daily Beast skrev:While Wagner Group recruited approximately 50,000 fighters in recent months, including from prisons, only 10,000 fighters remain fighting at the front for Wagner, Olga Romanova, the head of Russia Behind Bars, told My Russian Rights, according to The Moscow Times.
“According to our data, 42-43 thousand [prisoners] were recruited by the end of December. Now they are, most likely, already over 50,000,” Romanova said. “Of these, 10,000 are fighting at the front, because all the rest are either killed… or missing, or deserted, or surrendered.”
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It is “significantly over 100,000 now,” Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters last week. “The Russians have suffered a tremendous amount of casualties in their military, and that includes their regular military and also their mercenaries, the Wagner Group, and other type forces that are fighting with the Russians.”
Först tog den sovjetiska ammunitionen slut. Sedan de ryska fångarna som i praktiken användes som kanonföda. Vad ska Putin hitta på härnäst?