announcement of donations of Western armor pouring in to help Kyiv launch a counteroffensive

Since France’s announcement to send armored vehicles, the United States, Germany, Great Britain will provide kyiv with equipment for a counteroffensive. The announcement will be made January 20 in Ramstein at a meeting of Western defense officials.

The announcement of the delivery of Western armored vehicles to Ukraine was considered a “political coup” by donor countries, but for kyiv it was a strategic coup that could be used for future attacks on Russian forces. The Ukrainian army command stated a minimum requirement of 300 tanks and 700 armored vehicles to launch this counterattack.

“Ukraine must receive all the necessary military equipment to defend its territory,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Until now, Ukraine’s allies have refused to provide battle tanks or light armored vehicles, fearing an escalation with Moscow. But since France’s promise to supply the AMX10-RC armored vehicles, the United States and Germany, Great Britain, then Poland and Finland have followed suit. Washington announced major new military aid to Ukraine worth more than $3 billion, including 50 Bradley-type armored infantry and dozens of other armored vehicles. Finally, the UK is now planning to provide Challenger 2 battle tanks. There will be about ten of them.

For its part, France could deliver the first ten AMX10-RCs, according to information from Europe1. Eventually, there will be around thirty copies with the goal of not exceeding Jaguar’s pace of replacement.

“It will also depend on the training of Ukrainian soldiers in AMX,” the Ministry of Armed Forces told BFM Business.

Leclerc fighting the Leopards

After heated controversy, Berlin has finally announced 40 “Marder”, light armored vehicles intended for troop transport to be delivered in the coming weeks. For the Leopard 2 battle tanks, Germany has yet to announce anything, but Poland and Finland have said they are ready to take part of their stockpile for supply to Kyiv. This decision remains subject to agreement from Germany which holds the export license. At the moment nothing has been decided by the Chancellor of Germany.

Based on Der Spiegelthis decision should be formalized on January 20 in Ramstein during a meeting of Western defense officials.

“Discussions are planned next week with Ukraine to see what kind of weapons are needed and which of the allies can afford them,” said Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

On this occasion, Germany was able to unlock the delivery of the Leopard 2. According to PoliticalParis is studying the possibility of deploying the Leclerc tanks in NATO countries that will send them.

“We can defend the countries of the eastern wing within the framework of NATO. As we did in Romania or elsewhere in the Baltic countries with La Défense du Ciel”, explains the Ministry of Armed Forces.

This announcement, while far from the needs expressed by Kyiv, has already angered Russia. For Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, “this transfer cannot and will not change anything” in the military situation and will only “prolong the suffering of the Ukrainian people”.

Tricky question about ammo

Indispensable in the face of Russian troops, Western arms shipments have led to an effective counteroffensive that has pushed Russian troops out of the Kharkiv region to the northeast and the city of Kherson to the south. Ukraine aims to regain all of its territory but fears a new Russian attack.

There is still ammunition that remains the decisive point and which will be difficult to do sooner. The head of European diplomacy, Spaniard Josep Borrell recently acknowledged that European Union arms stocks are depleted. “I don’t want Cassandra to announce bad news, but it is the truth”, explained Josep Borrell during the intervention before the European Defense Agency (EDA).

In a report, Ifri (French Institute of International Relations) believes that if Europe faces a situation it was not planned, but paradoxically it should have happened. “The loss rates observed on the ground and the high consumption of ammunition have highlighted the insufficiency of the French operational fleet, reduced to a minimum after two decades of budgetary scarcity”, said the report’s author, Léo Péria- Comb.