Friday’s meeting is the third in this so-called “Ramstein” format since the start of the conflict.
Lhe countries that support kyiv militarily are holding a meeting in Germany on Friday, 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 Russia.
A few hours before this meeting on the American base of Ramstein, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark announced new substantial deliveries of weapons to Ukraine.
Washington will thus 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 installment brings total US military aid to Ukraine to $26.7 billion since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.
No heavy tank
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.
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.
War in Ukraine: the West is careful not to fall into the trap of co-belligerence
London had already promised fourteen Challenger 2 heavy tanks to kyiv, and Poland says it is ready to deliver fourteen German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks, a total still far from the hundreds of such vehicles that Ukraine says it needs.
“We are waiting for strong decisions”
Friday’s meeting is the third in this so-called “Ramstein” format since the start of the conflict. The Ministers of Defense and senior military officials from around fifty countries gather around the American Secretary of State for Defence, Lloyd Austin.
“We are preparing for Ramstein tomorrow. We expect strong decisions. We expect strong military support from the United States,” Zelensky said in his Thursday night video address.
“A few countries” will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said Thursday, adding that “further information” will be released on Friday.
“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.
The risk of diversion of weapons sent to Ukraine is underestimated
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”.
Speaking by videoconference on the sidelines of the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland, Mr. Zelensky for his part mocked those who say “I will deliver tanks if someone else does”.
War in Ukraine: Germany refuses to deliver its battle tanks until Washington does the same
