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President Zelenskyy (last Thursday in Kyiv)
Photo:
SERGEY DOLZHENKO / EPA
That says Kyiv
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reacted cautiously to reports that German-made main battle tanks have been promised.
In his video speech on Tuesday evening, he only spoke about it towards the end.
"Many efforts, words, promises," he said as he spoke.
It is more important to see the reality.
“It's not about five or ten or fifteen tanks.
The need is greater.«
After much hesitation, Germany has decided to deliver Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine and to allow allies to do the same.
According to SPIEGEL information, there are plans in Berlin to equip at least one company with the Leopard 2A6 version from Bundeswehr stocks.
This would require 14 of the weapon systems.
Selenskyj now said that the discussions about the delivery of tanks must now lead to decisions.
"Decisions that really strengthen our defense against the terrorists." Ukraine's allies had the required number of tanks.
"If we have the necessary weight in decisions, we will be happy to thank you for every single important decision," emphasized Zelenskyy.
"We're still working on that."
The reaction of Zelenskyy's head of office, Andriy Yermak, sounded happier.
“We will have everything, everything for retaking our territories and for the counteroffensive.
Tankers will be happy, as will artillerymen and, later, pilots," he wrote on Telegram.
Soon "everything will be Ukraine again."
By referring to pilots, the chancellery chief anticipated a new discussion that Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had started a few minutes earlier.
“Now F-16?
Yes! I'll take care of that,” he wrote on Facebook of a conversation with an unnamed European colleague.
In doing so, he revealed the next step of the Ukrainian leadership, which now also wants to endeavor to deliver combat aircraft in the near future.
The Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk acknowledged the German decision to supply tanks as historic.
Even if it was delayed, it was "without a doubt a real breakthrough and a game changer for Ukraine on the battlefield," he told the dpa news agency.
"This will go down in history."
The fact that Scholz apparently even helped convince the United States to deliver their M1 Abrams tanks is even "a double tank boom," said the former ambassador in Berlin.
Now it is necessary for Germany to forge "a powerful tank alliance".
"Germany should throw away all the brake pads and take a leading role in this Leo coalition."
In his video address, President Zelenskyi also referred to the latest wave of layoffs within his government.
He defended them as necessary.
"We need a strong state," he said.
The dismissals are "necessary for our defense - and it helps our rapprochement with the European institutions".
Several deputy ministers, governors and senior officials resigned or were fired on Tuesday as a result of an alleged corruption scandal in the Ukrainian army.
You can read more about how Zelenskyy is restructuring his government - and why - here.
Moscow says so
The Russian ambassador to the United States has responded to media reports that the US government wants to supply Ukraine with M1 Abrams tanks after all.
Such a step represents "another blatant provocation" of the conflict, according to a statement by the Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov on Telegram.
"If the United States decides to supply tanks, then you definitely cannot justify such a step with the 'defense weapons' argument." It is obvious that the government in Washington is working towards a strategic defeat of Russia.
What else has happened in the past few hours
Two British nationals have died during an aid operation in Ukraine.
This was announced by the Foreign Ministry in London, citing the relatives, on Tuesday evening.
The two men had traveled to the war zone as civilian aid workers.
You have been missing for more than two weeks.
According to the statement, they were killed trying to evacuate from the town of Soledar.
Media in New Zealand, where one of the men lived, quoted a statement from his parents.
Accordingly, the two men's car was hit by artillery when they wanted to bring an elderly woman to safety.
The State Department had already announced in early January that the men were missing.
About two weeks ago, the Russian mercenary group Wagner claimed to have found the body of a missing Briton, along with ID and the documents of a second British citizen.
What is happening today
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will face the members of the Bundestag in a government survey from 1 p.m. today.
The central issue is likely to be the delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine.
That's what it will be about in a current hour from 3 p.m.;
it came about at the request of the Union faction.
aar/dpa/Reuters
