‘Global indecision is killing more of our people’: Ukraine

On Friday, some 50 countries agreed to provide Kyiv with billions of dollars worth of military hardware, including armored vehicles and munitions needed to push back Russian forces.

But German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that despite the heightened expectations, “we still cannot say when and what the decision will be about the Leopard tank.”

“Today’s indecision is killing more of our people,” Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, tweeted.

“Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think fast,” he said.

Many allies echoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in saying that the tanks were necessary for Ukraine’s fight with its much larger neighbor.

In a joint statement the foreign ministers of the three Baltic states urged Germany “Now to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

“It is needed to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe,” said a message tweeted by Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevics.

“Germany as a major European power has a special responsibility in this regard.”

in berlinHundreds of people demonstrated outside the Federal Chancellery building and called on Germany to send tanks to Ukraine.

Berlin has been hesitant to send Leopard or allow other countries to transfer them to Kyiv.

Reports earlier in the week indicated that Germany would agree to do so only if the US provided its tanks as well. Washington has said it is not possible to provide its Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing difficulties in training and maintenance.

But ahead of a meeting of a US-led Ukraine contact group of nearly 50 countries on Friday, hopes had risen that Germany would at least agree to let other countries operate Leopard which would transfer them to Kyiv’s forces.

US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who is currently visiting Kyiv, called on both countries to supply the machines.

“To the Germans: send tanks to Ukraine because they need them. It is in your own national interest that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin loses in Ukraine.”

“(US President Joe) To the Biden administration: send US tanks so others follow our lead,” he said.

The arguments came as the Russian military said its troops had launched an offensive in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, where fighting intensified this week after several months of an almost frozen front.

In its daily report on Saturday, Moscow’s military said they had launched an “offensive operation” in the area and claimed to have “taken more advantageous lines and positions”.

Russia also said it had conducted a training exercise to prevent airstrikes Moscow area, using an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported 26 airstrikes and 15 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems on Saturday.

On the border of Ukraine with Russia, “the enemy does not abandon its offensive plans, concentrating its main efforts on attempts to completely capture the Donetsk region.”

In Kyiv, Zelensky attended the funeral of his interior minister and other officials killed in a helicopter crash outside the capital on Wednesday.

Seven coffins were carried into the hall by military pallbearers in full ceremonial dress to the sound of a lone trumpet and a snare drum echoing in central Kyiv.

One of Zelensky’s top aides, Denis Monastirsky, is the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to die in the war launched by Russia on February 24, 2022.

Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska wore all black and laid wreaths.

Zelensky later said in a statement, “Ukraine is losing its best sons and daughters every day.”

The cause of death of him and 13 other people after the helicopter crashed near a kindergarten is still under investigation.

we Officials said Ukraine still faces an uphill battle against Russian forces, which have captured a fifth of the country 11 months after the invasion.

But he spoke of a possible Ukrainian counter-offensive in the coming weeks to retake parts of its territory.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs, pointed to the substantial amount of equipment – ​​much of it armored vehicles and artillery – that Ukraine was being plowed into Ramstein, as well as large-scale training by the allies.

Milley said, “I think it is very possible for the Ukrainian people to conduct a significant tactical or even operational-level offensive to liberate as much Ukrainian territory as possible.”

But the Kremlin warned Friday that Western tanks would make little difference on the battlefield.

“The importance of such supplies in terms of their ability to change something should not be overstated,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification. Only the headline has been changed.