WASHINGTON\/BERLIN\/KYIV
\nUkraine declared an air raid alert over the whole country early on Thursday and senior officials said air defences units were shooting down incoming Russian missiles, while fighting also intensified in Bakhmut in the east.
\nThe attacks come after the United States and Germany announced plans to arm Ukraine with dozens of modern battle tanks in its fight against Russia, which denounced the decisions as an \u201cextremely dangerous\u201d step.
\n\u201cThe first Russian missiles have been shot down,\u201d Andriy Yermak, head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy\u2019s office said.
\nOvernight, the military said its anti-aircraft defences had shot down all 24 drones sent by Russia, 15 around the capital, Kyiv. There were no reports of damage.
\nOfficials told the public to take shelter.
\nRussia has targeted critical infrastructure with missile and drone strikes since October, causing sweeping blackouts and other outages during the bitter winter.
\nEarlier, Zelenskiy praised the US and German commitments to send tanks and urged allies to provide large quantities of tanks quickly.
\n\u201cThe key now is speed and volumes. Speed in training our forces, speed in supplying tanks to Ukraine. The numbers in tank support,\u201d he said in a nightly video address on Wednesday. \u201cWe have to form such a \u2018tank fist\u2019, such a \u2018fist of freedom\u2019.\u201d
\nUkraine has been seeking hundreds of modern tanks to give its troops the firepower to break Russian defensive lines and reclaim occupied territory in the south and east. Ukraine and Russia have been relying primarily on Soviet-era T-72 tanks.
\nThe promise of tanks comes as both Ukraine and Russia are expected to launch new offensives in the war.
\nUS President Joe Biden announced his decision to supply 31 M1 Abrams tanks hours after Berlin said it would provide Leopard 2 tanks \u2014 the workhorse of NATO armies across Europe.
\nMaintaining Kyiv\u2019s drumbeat of requests for more aid, Zelenskiy said he spoke to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and called for long-range missiles and aircraft.
\nUkraine\u2019s allies have already provided billions in military support including sophisticated US missile systems.
\nThe United States has been wary of deploying the difficult-to-maintain Abrams but had to change tack to persuade Germany to send to Ukraine its more easily operated Leopards.
\nBiden said the tanks pose \u201cno offensive threat\u201d to Russia and that they were needed to help the Ukrainians \u201cimprove their ability to manoeuvre in open terrain\u201d.
\nGermany will send an initial company of 14 tanks from its stocks and approve shipments by allied European states.
\nThe Abrams can be tricky, but the Leopard was designed as a system that any NATO member could service and crews and repair specialists could be trained together on a single model, Ukrainian military expert Viktor Kevlyuk told Espreso TV.
\n\u201cIf we have been brought into this club by providing us with these vehicles, I would say our prospects look good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON\/BERLIN\/KYIV Ukraine declared an air raid alert over the whole country early on Thursday and senior officials said air defences units were shooting down incoming Russian missiles, while fighting also intensified in Bakhmut in the east. The attacks come after the United States and Germany announced plans to arm Ukraine with dozens of modern battle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-310162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n