The US-created and led Ukraine Contact Group of some 50 countries is meeting today at the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany, to coordinate the delivery of more aid to kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that the country, which has been the target of a Russian military offensive for almost a year, needs heavier and more modern weaponry, hoping the West will supply, in particular, tanks and air defense systems. .
Germany is under pressure to allow delivery to Ukrainian forces of German-made Leopard 2 tanks that are operational in NATO partner countries.
Poland has already announced that it is ready to re-export the Leopard 2, but that it needs “a ‘German authorization'”.
On the eve of the meeting, Zelensky again asked Berlin to allow the supply of Leopard 2.
“You can keep talking about it for six months, but every day people die in my country,” the Ukrainian leader said in an interview with German public television ARD.
The issue of Leopard 2 tanks weighs heavily on new German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who took office this week and met his US counterpart for the first time on Thursday. After the meeting, Boris Pistorius insisted that there would be no “unilateral decisions” on the German side.
Along with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, United States of America (USA) Chief of Staff General Mark Milley and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will attend the meeting Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who will present the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces and discuss sending more weapons with allies able to secure supplies.
The Minister of National Defense, Helena Carreiras, also participates in the meeting.
The so-called “Ukrainian Defense Contact Group” (original name in English) was created in April 2022 at the Ramstein base, Germany, with the participation of defense ministers from more than 40 countries, including Portugal.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: TSF
