A decisive day. The countries that support kyiv militarily meet this Friday in Ramstein, Germany, to coordinate Western military assistance to Ukraine. Kyiv hopes its allies will announce the dispatch of heavy tanks to help it fight Russia.
“We are waiting for firm decisions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his daily video address on Thursday.
This Friday’s meeting brings together all the Defense Ministers and senior military commanders from some fifty countries around the US Secretary of State for Defense, Lloyd Austin. This is the third of its kind since the beginning of the conflict.
Deliveries below expectations from Kyiv
Several substantial arms deliveries to Ukraine have recently been announced. Washington will release new $2.5 billion in military aid, including 59 Bradley armored vehicles, adding to 50 such light armored vehicles promised on January 6, and 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers. However, no heavy tank was planned. The United States says it is not yet ready to supply Kyiv for maintenance and training reasons.
The UK has pledged to send Ukraine an additional 600 Brimstone missiles, Denmark 19 French-made Caesar guns and Sweden Archer self-propelled guns. Systems that all have a range of several tens of kilometers, less than what the Ukrainians claim.
London had already promised 14 Challenger 2 heavy tanks to Kyiv, and Poland says it is ready to deliver 14 German-built Leopard 2 main battle tanks, a total that is still some way from the hundreds of such vehicles Ukraine says. what do you need.
Germany under pressure
But other countries are still hesitant, including France, which was only able to send a token number of Leclerc tanks to the front.
Germany is under increasing pressure from several of its European neighbors to allow leopard deliveries.
But Berlin wants to wait for the United States to send its own tanks before handing over its own. The image of hundreds of German tanks from World War II could serve Russia, which justifies the invasion of Ukraine due to the need to denazify the country.
Ukraine wants 300 tanks
Last December, Ukraine demanded 300 tanks from its allies to counter Russian attacks. Europe then had several options: the UK offered 14 Challenger 2 tanks, Germany had just produced 2,000 Leopard 2 tanks, intended for sale, while France had 200 AMX-56 Leclerc tanks undergoing modernization. But its use is complex.
“They need a particular logistics chain. All these machines are at least 40 years old, it has become very difficult to have spare parts”, explains our Defense consultant Michel Goya to BFMTV.
“It is quite delicate to use and requires a lot of maintenance,” he adds.
Tanks that “will not change anything”, according to Moscow
Russia, for its part, is scrutinizing the military aid provided to Ukraine. “The UK and other European countries like Poland will not change anything on the front. These tanks will burn, like the rest,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned on Monday.
If Moscow is concerned it is that certain tanks sent by the West may actually turn the tide in Kyiv’s favor and the Ukrainian target of 300 tanks could be reached quickly.
But Westerners fear, despite Ukraine’s assurances, that Kyiv will escalate by using these weapons to penetrate deep into Russian territory. An adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, asks his allies to stop “trembling in front of Putin.”
Source: BFM TV
