KYIV/BERLIN,Jan 19 (Reuters) – Germany will send German-made tanks to Ukraine so long as the United States agrees to do likewise, a government source in Berlin told Reuters, as NATO partners remained out of step over how best to arm Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Ukraine has pleaded for modern Western weapons, especially heavy battle tanks, so it can regain momentum following some battlefield successes in the second half of 2022 against Russian forces that invaded last February.
The Pentagon is still not prepared to meet Kyiv’s request for M1 Abrams tanks, Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser who had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, has said. Germany’s new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will meet US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday.
Austin will urge Pistorius at a meeting to allow German-made Leopard tanks to be transferred to Ukraine, U.S. officials said.
Germany will be the focus of Friday’s meeting, which said Western tanks should only be supplied to Ukraine if there is an agreement between Kyiv’s main allies.
Britain this month stepped up pressure on Berlin by becoming the first Western country to send tanks to Ukraine and pledging to send a squadron of challengers. Poland and Finland have announced that they will send Leopard tanks if Germany agrees. Via a video link at the Davos Forum on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Western allies to resupply his country before Russia launches its next missile and armored ground attack.
The German Leopard 2 is considered his one of the best tanks in the West. Weighing in at over 60 tons (60,000 kilograms), he carried a 120 mm smoothbore gun and could hit targets up to 5 km (3 miles) away.
Ukraine, which has largely relied on a variant of his Soviet-era T-72 tank, says the new tank will give its forces the mobile firepower to rout Russian forces in key battles.
In the first months of the invasion, described by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “military special operation”, fighting has focused on southern and eastern Ukraine after the first Russian strike aimed at Kyiv from the north was thwarted. ing. Consisting of Luhansk and Donetsk, Donbass is the industrial center of eastern Ukraine. Russian forces have been seeking control of the town of Bakhmut in Donetsk for months, with limited success, and in recent weeks have turned their attention to the small nearby town of Soledar.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov claims in his YouTube video that the Russians have been in control of the town for more than a week before him, yet Ukrainian military units remain in Soledar. He said there was heavy fighting in the western districts.
