The countries that support Kiev militarily are holding a meeting in Germany on Friday, January 20, from which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is waiting for "
strong decisions
", such as the sending of heavy armored vehicles, to help his country in the crucial battles to come against the Russia.
A few hours before this meeting on the American base of Ramstein, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark announced substantial new deliveries of weapons to Ukraine.
American aid
Washington will release a new military aid of 2.5 billion dollars, including 59 Bradley armored vehicles, which will be added to the 50 light armored vehicles of this type promised on January 6, and 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers, according to the Pentagon.
The US Army will also deliver to Ukraine 53 anti-mine armored vehicles (MRAP) and 350 M998 transport vehicles, the famous Humvee.
This new tranche brings the total US military assistance to Ukraine to $26.7 billion since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: with heavy tanks, kyiv hopes for a tactical advantage
But this new tranche of aid does not include any heavy tanks, such as the Abrams, which the United States says is not yet ready to provide kyiv for maintenance and training reasons.
British aid
The United Kingdom has pledged to send Ukraine 600 additional 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 that claimed by the Ukrainians.
London had already promised 14 Challenger 2 heavy tanks to kyiv, and Poland says it is ready to deliver 14 German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks, a total still far from the hundreds of such vehicles that Ukraine says it needs.
"Strong Decisions"
Friday's meeting is the third in this so-called "
Ramstein
" format since the start of the conflict.
Defense ministers and senior military officials from some fifty countries gather around US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
“
We are preparing for Ramstein tomorrow.
We expect strong decisions.
We expect strong military support from the United States
,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in his Thursday evening video address.
Clear information to come
"
Some countries
" will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said on Thursday, adding that "
further information
" will be released on Friday (January 20th).
“
You need German tanks, Finnish tanks, Danish tanks, French tanks, that means that Western Europe itself must now allocate more modern tanks to Ukraine, so that it can simply defend itself
“, as for him pleaded the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Germany is under increasing pressure from several of its European neighbors to allow deliveries of Leopards.
His new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Thursday the answer would be "
clear within the next few hours or tomorrow (Friday) morning
".
Blame those who differ
Speaking by videoconference on the sidelines of the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland, Volodymyr Zelensky for his part mocked those who say “
I will deliver tanks if someone else does
”.
A clear allusion to Germany, whose Chancellor Olaf Scholz told US congressmen in Davos that his country would only supply heavy tanks to Ukraine if the US also sent them, according to a senior US official .
“Stop trembling in front of Putin”
"
Against thousands of tanks from Russia (...), the courage of our army and the motivation of the Ukrainian people are not enough
", hammered Volodymyr Zelensky.
Shortly after, one of his advisers, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, called on Westerners to stop “
trembling before Putin
” and to deliver heavy armor to Ukraine.
Experts say modern, Western-designed heavy tanks would be a crucial advantage for kyiv in looming battles in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is back on the offensive after suffering heavy setbacks this winter.
Western fear of an escalation
Ukrainian authorities also say they need missile systems with a range of more than 100 km to be able to hit the Russian supply chain, especially ammunition depots.
But Westerners fear, despite Ukrainian assurances, that kyiv will escalate by using these weapons to strike deep into Russian territory and air and naval bases in Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014 by Russia.
The Kremlin also sent a clear warning on Thursday: the delivery of longer-range weapons "
would mean that the conflict would reach a new level
".
