Ramstein meeting: No decision on Leopard tanks, Poland was willing to provide

1. Participants at a meeting at the US air base in Germany’s Ramstein, who gathered to discuss further assistance to Ukraine, have not yet reached any accord on Leopard 2 tanks, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday.

"We cannot yet say when a decision on the Leopards will be made and what it will be," he said in an interview with the Phoenix television channel.

According to the minister, there are arguments both in favor of their supplies and against them and there is no accord among allies on this matter. He noted that the impression that only Germany is against sending tanks to Ukraine is not true.
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2. VIDEO: The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, told reporters no German decision had been made to send tanks to Ukraine, despite Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urging Nato partners to provide them.

Speaking at Germany's US Ramstein airbase, he said: 'What we're really focussed on is making sure that Ukraine has the capability that it needs to be successful right now.'

*He added that Poland was willing to provide tanks if other allies followed suit.*
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3. *Statements by Western countries about the need to supply Kiev with any weapons, including those capable of hitting targets in Crimea, are raising the stakes in the conflict and will inevitably lead to an escalation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said in a commentary on Friday.*

In particular, she drew attention to The New York Times report which claimed that the US administration was considering options for supplying Kiev with additional weapons to attack Crimea. In addition, Zakharova recalled that the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had urged partners to give Kiev "any weapon it can use."

"We regard all this as an open, provocative instigation by the West and a raising of the stakes in the conflict, which will inevitably lead to greater casualties and a dangerous escalation," Zakharova said.

She stated that the West was "plunging ever deeper into the conflict in Ukraine": supplies of Western air defense systems and tanks to Kiev are being discussed at the US base in Ramstein, Germany and Western countries are also training Ukrainian military personnel.

The commentary stresses that Kiev is using the tragedy in Dnepropetrovsk to obtain more arms supplies from the West.

"A freelance adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine, Alexey Arestovich, initially admitted that the Ukrainian air defense’s actions were the cause of the tragedy, but then he began to backtrack," Zakharova pointed out. "[Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky's regime is shamelessly trying to use this tragedy to press the West for tougher anti-Russian sanctions and new arms shipments."
#leopard #leopard2 #germany #poland #ukrainewar #ramstein #lloydaustin #arms #weapons #humantragedy #airdefencesystem
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Related:
Arestovich said that a rocket fell on a residential building in Dnipro due to UA air defense:
[https://youtu.be/OaTx9iszKzs]
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Related 2:
Germany Alarmed By Huge Ukrainian Losses Near Bakhmut - Reports:
[https://www.elethos.gr/2023/01/germany-alarmed-by-huge-ukrainian.html]
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Western weapons will only hurt Ukrainians: Kremlin:
[https://www.kaos.gr/2023/01/western-weapons-will-only-hurt.html]