RAMSTEIN AIR BASE
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday there was \u201cno alternative\u201d but for the West to give Ukraine heavy tanks, as Germany failed to commit its sought-after Leopard vehicles to a possible spring offensive by Kyiv.
\nA US-led meeting of some 50 Ukraine allies came through with billions of dollars\u2019 worth of military hardware, including ample armored vehicles and munitions needed to push back Russian forces.
\nBut Zelensky stressed he needed battle tanks on top of that, as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Ukraine was expected to mount an attack against dug-in Russian troops in the coming weeks.
\n\u201cWe have a window of opportunity here between now and the spring… whenever they commence their operation, their counteroffensive,\u201d Austin said at the meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
\nZelensky urged the group in a video address to \u201cspeed up\u201d arms deliveries and stressed Germany\u2019s Leopard tank was a primary need.
\n\u201cEvery day we make it more obvious that there is no alternative, that a decision about tanks must be made,\u201d he said.
\nExpectations had grown ahead of the Ukraine Contact Group meeting, a grouping of arms providers led by Austin, that Germany would at least agree that other countries operating Leopards would be permitted to transfer them to Kyiv\u2019s army.
\nThe reasons for Germany\u2019s reticence remained unclear, as Britain has agreed to send 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.
\nGerman Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters: \u201cWe still cannot say when a decision will be taken, and what the decision will be, when it comes to the Leopard tank.\u201d
\nAustin defended Germany against criticism that it was not doing enough to help Kyiv.
\n\u201cWe could all do more,\u201d Austin said, emphasising that Berlin was a \u201creliable ally.\u201d
\nUS officials said Ukraine still faces an uphill battle against Russian forces, who still occupy one-fifth of the country, 11 months after invading.
\nBut they spoke of a possible coming campaign by Ukraine to retake parts of that.
\nUS Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley pointed to the substantial amount of equipment \u2014 much of it armored vehicles and artillery \u2014 that Ukraine was being pledged at Ramstein, as well as the large-scale training of its forces by allies.
\n\u201cI do think it\u2019s very possible for the Ukrainians to run a significant tactical or even operational-level offensive operation to liberate as much Ukrainian territory as possible,\u201d Milley said.
\nA senior White House official, speaking on grounds of anonymity, said Kyiv should not fixate on defending the eastern city of Bakhmut at all costs and instead use a window of opportunity to prepare a major counter-offensive against Russian forces.
\nThe official said the months-long defense of Bakhmut has had little value for Ukraine and a Russian victory there would not result in any significant shift in the war.
\nInstead, Ukraine should focus on building a more sophisticated and heavily armed force capable of launching an offensive in the south, the official said.
\nThe Kremlin meanwhile warned Friday that Western tanks will make little difference.
\n\u201cOne should not exaggerate the importance of such supplies in terms of the ability to change something,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
\n\u201cWe see an adherence to the dramatic delusion about the possibility of Ukraine having success on the battlefield,\u201d said Peskov.
\n\u201cThis will add problems for Ukraine, but this will change nothing in terms of the Russian side advancing on the path to achieving its goals.\u201d
\nThe siege of Bakhmut hardly slowed, as on Friday a couple stood across the street from their apartment building in the city, watching helplessly as their home burned, set ablaze after a shell hit nearby.
\n\u201cLook, look, it\u2019s my flat, it\u2019s the only flat I have,\u201d said Olga Tomakh, 70, on the verge of tears.
\nAbout 15 kilometers from Bakhmut, in Soledar, the United Nation\u2019s first humanitarian convoy arrived in the town that has been largely reduced to rubble.
\nRussia claims to have seized Soledar, but Ukraine insists the fighting, in which both sides have suffered heavy losses, is ongoing.
\nMeanwhile, the United States said it was officially designating the Wagner private military group, which has taken the lead in the Bakhmut-Soledar campaign, as a \u201ctransnational criminal organization.\u201d
\nThe White House showed US intelligence photographs of North Korea supplying arms to Wagner for its Ukraine operations, and said the private army had become a rival to the formal Russian military. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday there was \u201cno alternative\u201d but for the West to give Ukraine heavy tanks, as Germany failed to commit its sought-after Leopard vehicles to a possible spring offensive by Kyiv. A US-led meeting of some 50 Ukraine allies came through with billions of dollars\u2019 worth of military […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-308862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n