Critical meeting of the countries that militarily support Kyiv today in Germany

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A few hours before the start of the conference, at the US base Ramstein in Germany, the US, Sweden and Denmark announced the supply of new equipment to Ukraine.

The countries that militarily support Kyiv are holding a conference in Germany today, from which the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected “strong decisions” such as sending heavy tanks to help his country in crucial battles against Russia.

A few hours before the start of the conference, at the US base Ramstein in Germany, the US, Sweden and Denmark announced the supply of new equipment to Ukraine.

Washington will release $2.5 billion in new military aid, which will include 59 Bradley fighting vehicles to add to the 50 such light armored vehicles it has already pledged to Ukraine, and 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers , according to the Pentagon.

The US military will also send Ukraine 53 mine-resistant armored vehicles (MRAPs) and 350 M998 vehicles, better known as Humvees.

The new package brings to $26.7 billion the value of military aid announced by the US to Ukraine since the Russian invasion of its territory began on February 24, 2022.

But this new package does not include heavy tanks, such as the Abrams, which the US says cannot be given to Kyiv for maintenance and training purposes.

For its part, Britain has pledged to send Ukraine an additional 600 Brimstone missiles, Denmark 19 French-made Caesar self-propelled guns and Sweden Archer artillery systems.

These systems have a shorter range by many tens of kilometers than what the Ukrainians are asking for.

London has also pledged to send 14 Challenger 2 heavy tanks, while Poland is set to deliver 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv. The total number of these tanks is far less than what Ukraine is asking for.

“Strong Decisions”

Today’s meeting is the third to be held since the beginning of the war under the so-called “Ramstein” scheme. Defense ministers and senior military officials from about 50 countries will meet there, moderated by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

“We’re getting ready for Rammstein tomorrow. We expect strong decisions. We expect strong military support from the US,” Zelensky said in the video he published yesterday, Thursday evening.

“Some countries” will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvindas Anousauskas pointed out yesterday, adding that “additional information” will be made known today.

“German tanks, Finnish tanks, Danish tanks, French tanks are needed, this means that Western Europe will now have to provide more modern tanks to Ukraine in order to be able to defend itself,” the Pole had stressed Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Germany is under increasing pressure from many of its European neighbors to approve the supply of German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

Germany’s new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius pointed out yesterday that the answer “will become clear in the next few hours or tomorrow (i.e. today) morning”.

“They tremble before Putin”

“Against Russia’s thousands of tanks (…) the courage of our army and the support of the Ukrainian people are not enough,” Zelensky underlined yesterday, speaking via video link on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

A little later one of his advisers, Mykhailo Podoliak, asked the West to stop “trembling before Putin” and send heavy tanks to Ukraine.

According to experts, heavy, modern Western-made tanks will give Kyiv a significant advantage in the upcoming battles in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities note that they also need missile launch systems with a range of more than 100 kilometers to be able to hit the Russian supply chain, especially ammunition depots.

But Westerners fear that, despite Kiev’s assurances, Ukraine will escalate the conflict by using these weapons to strike deep inside Russian territory and air and naval bases in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The Kremlin, for its part, warned clearly yesterday: the delivery of longer-range weapons to Kyiv “will mean that the conflict is moving to a new level.”

RES-EMP

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