Weapons Package For Ukraine 'Very Capable' Even Without Requested Tanks, U.S. Defense Secretary Says
According to RFE/RL, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine’s allies are sending a “very capable” combat package that includes tanks, but not the German-made ones that Ukraine has requested or U.S. Abrams tanks.
Austin said the weapons package announced after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein U.S. Air Base in Germany on January 20 will enable Ukraine to be successful if deployed properly. He said there was no linkage between providing Abrams tanks and the German-made Leopards.
“This notion of unlocking in my mind is not an issue and more importantly in [German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’s] mind as well,” Austin said.
Eerlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had pleaded with Ukraine's allies to accelerate deliveries of modern heavy weapons, including tanks, even as Austin urged his Western counterparts to "dig deeper" to help Kyiv's forces stave off Russia's offensive in the east, where heavy fighting continues.
Addressing a meeting of the contact group in Germany by video link, Zelenskiy said that the allied partners needed "not to bargain about different numbers of tanks, but to open that principal supply that will stop evil."
The gathering, the latest in a series of weapons-pledging meetings since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, comes as Germany faces growing pressure to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, or at least give permission to other allies to deliver the German-made tanks from their own stock.
Zelenskiy told the gathering that “terror does not allow for discussion,” adding that “the war started by Russia does not allow delays."
Poland's defense minister said on January 20 that no decision on supplying Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine had yet been reached, though he remained optimistic that efforts to provide them would end in success.
"Hope comes from the fact that...defense ministers of 15 countries met on the sidelines of today's conference, and we talked about this topic," Mariusz Blaszczak told reporters in Ramstein. "I am convinced that coalition-building will end in success."
Austin told the meeting that Ukraine is racing against time in the face or Russia's onslaught and Western help for Kyiv must come faster.
"Russia is regrouping, recruiting, and trying to re-equip," Austin said at the start of the meeting. "This is not a moment to slow down. It's a time to dig deeper. The Ukrainian people are watching us."
Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are discussing with the allies the latest $2.5 billion worth of U.S. military aid for Ukraine announced by the Pentagon on January 19 that includes Stryker armored vehicles for the first time but no tanks.
Zelenskiy on January 19 addressed Germany's leaders directly in an interview with public broadcaster ARD, saying: "In plain language, can you deliver Leopards or not? Then hand them over!"
Washington has declined for the time being to provide its own M1 Abrams tanks, arguing that the high-tech U.S. tank needs extensive and complex maintenance and poses huge logistical challenges.
The United States said it would be more productive to send Leopards that many allied militaries are already using.
