Germany said on Friday that no decision had yet been taken on the tanks sought by Kyiv at a key US-led meeting to step up military aid to Ukraine, despite an emotional plea from President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany ahead of the meeting raised hopes that Ukraine’s Western allies would agree to send German-made Leopard tanks, amid mounting pressure from several European countries to do so.
But German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters on the sidelines of the event that “we still cannot say when a decision will be made about the Leopard tank and what the decision will be”.
He also denied allegations that Germany alone was blocking deliveries of tanks. The notion that “there is a united coalition and Germany stands in the way” is wrong, he added.
Pistorius said he had ordered an inspection of the leopards so that action could be taken quickly if the decision for delivery was positive.
Kyiv wants the powerful Leopard tanks to launch offensive attacks against Russian troops, but the Kremlin has warned their delivery by the West would escalate “extremely dangerous”.
Germany’s hesitation so far to supply the tanks has drawn sharp criticism of Berlin from other countries such as Finland and Poland, which have their own stockpiles of Leopards but would need German approval to send them.
Zelensky on Friday renewed his plea to “expedite” arms deliveries to Western allies ukraine As he addressed the conference, which was attended by delegates from 50 countries via video-link.
The Ukrainian leader said that the partners needed to “bargain not about different numbers of tanks, but to open up the main supply that could stop the evil”.
‘defining moment’
Make the meeting a “Ramstein of tanks”, Zelensky said, calling for future gatherings to “go down in history as the Ramstein of F-16s and long-range missiles”.
The meeting’s host, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, urged allies to “dig even deeper” to support Ukraine with weapons at a critical time, noting that Russia was “running out of ammunition”. and is suffering significant battle losses”.
“This is a defining moment for Ukraine. The Ukrainian people are looking at us, the Kremlin is looking at us, and history is looking at us,” Austin said.
The Kremlin responded by accusing the West of “dramatic illusions” that Ukraine could win on the battlefield, adding that the conflict was “developing in an upward spiral.”
Prior to the Ramstein meeting, the Western Allies received a flurry of new arms shipments.
Finland became the latest on Friday to announce a 400-million-euro ($433 million) military aid package, the largest ever and includes heavy artillery as well as ammunition.
It comes after allies including the United States and Britain announced new arms shipments on the eve of the Ramstein talks.
The Pentagon offered $2.5 billion worth of supplies to the Ukrainian military, including Bradley fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, air defense systems, and thousands of rockets and artillery rounds.
But it did not include the ATA long-range missiles sought by Ukraine.
The missiles, which can travel up to 300 kilometers (180 mi), could enable Ukraine to attack Russian supply routes and depots behind the front lines in ways that are not available with current Himars rocket systems.
a convoy reaches Soledar
But Western partners also fear Ukraine could use long-range weapons to strike deep inside Russian territory or Crimea – a peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014 – despite Kyiv’s promises not to do so Will do
Nearly a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the most intense fighting in recent months has been centered around the eastern Donetsk region.
In Kramatorsk, a city in an industrial district under Ukrainian control, AFP reporters see the results of a Russian attack on a two-story school building.
The attack had left a huge crater in front of the kindergarten, which held about 250 students and 70 staff before the start of the war.
Debris from the strike, which started a small fire and shattered windows, was strewn around the playground and lay near colorful murals on a school building.
“It’s hard to see the building like this, considering how much money and time it will take to restore it to its former state,” Margarita Oleksandrievna, deputy director of the kindergarten, told AFP.
In Soledar, some 60 kilometers from Kramatorsk, the first UN humanitarian convoy finally arrived in a town that had been largely reduced to rubble by fierce fighting.
“Recent fighting in and around Soledar has caused widespread destruction, leaving people there in dire need of humanitarian assistance,” said Jens Larke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
Russia claims to have seized Soledar, but Ukraine says fighting continues, with both sides suffering heavy losses.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)