Zelensky Urges Speedy Delivery of Western Tanks
Ukraine’s president has thanked Western leaders for sending tanks to support the fight against Russia, but said “they needed to be delivered quickly.”
In his nightly address, Volodymyr Zelensky also urged the West to send long-range missiles and fighter jets.
His comments came after the US and Germany announced they would send Abrams and Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
Russia condemned the announcement as a “blatant provocation” and said any supplied tanks would be destroyed.
The tanks would “burn like all the rest,” said Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman. “They are just very expensive.”
Mr Zelensky said he told Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that “progress must be made in other aspects of our defence co-operation” – with Ukraine seeking supplies of long-range missiles and artillery.
He pressed not only for a prompt delivery of Western tanks but also for significant numbers: “We must form such a tank force, such a freedom force that after it strikes, tyranny will never again rise up.”
While Mr Zelensky is likely to focus now on equipping the Ukrainian air force with more technologically advanced fighter jets after securing the tanks, many Western governments remain opposed to such a move – fearing the aircraft could be used to strike targets inside Russia.
In his speech to the Bundestag in Berlin on Wednesday outlining the details of the tanks plan, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted there would be “no fighter jet deliveries to Ukraine.”
US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the “US would send 31 M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine.”
The decision to deliver the tanks was announced hours after Germany said it “would send 14 of its Leopard 2s” to the Ukrainian battlefield.
Berlin also cleared the way for other European countries to donate German-made tanks from their own stocks.
Ukraine has lobbied Western allies to send the equipment for months.
“It hailed the twin announcements” as a turning point that would allow its military to regain momentum and take back occupied territory. almost a year after Moscow invaded.
It also said the tanks could help deter a potential Russian offensive in the spring.
BBC /Shakirat Sadiq
