Nato to send Kyiv modern tanks as new attack looms

Europe is closer to sending Ukraine modern battle tanks as
Nato prepares to redouble military support in anticipation of a Russian spring
offensive.
Among the heavy weapons under consideration are Stryker
armoured combat vehicles from the US, Archer artillery guns from Sweden,
Challenger 2 tanks from Britain and German-made Leopard 1 or 2 tanks, as
international pressure mounts on Berlin to release them.
Ukraine’s supporters, led by Lloyd Austin, the US defence
secretary, will discuss a new package of weaponry donations at the Ramstein
airbase in Germany next week as part of a push to supply more advanced systems.
Moscow is expected to begin mobilising as many as half a
million additional soldiers for a renewed onslaught after losing ground in the
Kherson and Kharkiv regions. In recent months it has concentrated forces around
the town of Bakhmut, where the Russian army and Wagner Group mercenaries have
eked out territorial gains with significant losses on both sides.
The British Ministry of Defence intelligence unit said
yesterday that the Russians had made “tactical advances” in their efforts to
encircle Bakhmut and were probably in control of most of Soledar, a smaller
town to the north.
President Zelensky said in a video address on Monday that
there was “almost no life” and “no whole walls” left in Soledar, which he said
was “covered with the corpses of the occupiers”. Before what may be a decisive
phase of the war, Nato members are reaching into their arsenals for more
effective munitions and combat vehicles to send Ukraine.
Over the past week alone, France has announced a consignment
of AMX-10 RC “light tanks”, the US has said it will send 50 Bradley infantry
fighting vehicles (IFVs) and Germany has consented to donate up to 40 Marder
IFVs, which Kyiv has been requesting since the start of the invasion. Germany
and the US also agreed to send Patriot missile defence systems. The Pentagon is
planning to bring Ukrainian troops to the US for training on the systems, the
Washington Post reported yesterday.
Nikolai Patrushev, the head of
Russia’s security council, told the Argumenti i Fakti newspaper: “The events in
Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv. This is a military
confrontation between Russia and Nato, above all the United States and
Britain.”