Germany and the United States will supply several dozen tanks to Ukraine, meanwhile, Russia has announced that this is an extremely dangerous step on the part of Western countries, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the West for this decision and said that speed is very important at the moment – both the speed of tank delivery and personnel training. Ukraine believes that modern tanks will allow to regain the occupied territories in the east and south of the country. Currently, both Russia and Ukraine mainly use Soviet-era T-72 tanks.
On Thursday, the 26th of January, an air alert was announced in most of the territory of Ukraine.
In the night from the 25th of January to the 26th of January, Ukrainian forces shot down 24 drones, including 15 over Kyiv.
Soon after Berlin’s announcement of the Leopard tank deliveries, US President Joe Biden officially informed that the US would deliver 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Initially, the US attitude towards sending the difficult-to-operate M1 Abrams was negative, but it changed its position to get Germany to give permission to transfer its tanks to the war zone.
Ukrainian military expert Viktor Kevlyuk said that with the delivery of such weapons, Ukraine’s prospects look good.
Meanwhile, Russia has reacted furiously to the news, and its ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechayev, said that this is raising the conflict to a new level. Russia has changed its public stance since the beginning of the war, and initial statements about the destruction of Nazism in Ukraine have been replaced by rhetoric about fighting the US and NATO.
US officials say the delivery of the M1 Abrams will take several months and should rather be seen as an aid to long-term defense, while German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has indicated that the Leopards will be delivered within three to four months.
Kyiv admitted on Wednesday, the 25th of January, that its forces had left Soledar. This can be considered as Russia’s biggest success in the last six months. Soledar is near Bahmut, where heavy fighting is still going on. The Ukrainian armed forces report that the Russians are attacking Bakhmut from different directions and want to capture the entire Donetsk region regardless of how many casualties there are on their side. Kevlyuk pointed out that at the tactical level, Bakhmut coming under Russian control will not change much, but the efforts of the Russian forces to regroup and concentrate their forces in Luhansk are worrying.
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