Ukraine will ask allied countries for help to protect its skies on Tuesday, through a “combat aircraft platform”, on the eve of the anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced Monday that he will be in Belgium on Tuesday to attend the meeting of more than 50 countries of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which traditionally meets at the US military base. USA in Ramstein, Germany.
“We will work intensively with partners in the coming days. The pace is extremely high,” Reznikov stressed, on the Facebook social network, adding that the priorities for Ukraine are “the protection of the Ukrainian sky, including through an aviation platform “. “.
Reznikov, together with representatives of the General Staff and diplomats, also wants to further promote the so-called “tank coalition”, address the creation of a strong ammunition reserve, to respond to the high consumption of shells, as well as discuss support for the Army in terms of logistics, maintenance and repairs.
He also wants to deepen training programs for Ukrainian soldiers, who are already training in the UK on Challenger 2 tanks and in southwestern Poland on German Leopard 2 tanks.
The German army has started its own training program for the Leopard 2A6, which should be completed by the end of the first quarter, public television channel ARD said on Monday, citing a Defense Ministry spokeswoman.
Ukraine hopes that its Western partners will clarify the exact number of tanks they will send and the delivery schedule at Tuesday’s meeting.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels on Monday that Ukraine must continue to receive “what it needs” to win and “achieve a just peace”, indicating that he expects “more deliveries” of tanks to Kiev.
The meeting of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine takes place 10 days after the first anniversary of the war, during which Ukraine does not rule out the possibility of suffering another massive attack – the fifteenth – by Russia.
The spokeswoman for the Southern Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Nataliya Gumenyuk, said on Monday that this calculation is not only due to the way Russia looks at symbolic dates, but also due to the average time between attacks.
Source: TSF
