By Adam Plowright and Sophie Estienne,
DAVOS Switzerland
NATO countries are set to announce new "heavier weapons" for Ukraine, the alliance's chief said on Wednesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his backers to speed up their decision-making.
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd
Austin will convene a meeting of around 50 countries on Friday at the US-run
Ramstein military base in Germany, including all 30 members of the NATO
alliance.
"The main message there
(in Ramstein) will be more support and more advanced support, heavier weapons,
and more modern weapons, because this is a fight for our values," NATO
chief Jens Stoltenberg told the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Many of Ukraine's allies have
announced plans to step up their military support to Kyiv this month despite
the risk of antagonising Russia, notably Britain, which became the first nation
to pledge Western heavy tanks on Saturday.
The United States has promised
to send its powerful Bradley armoured fighting vehicles, while France has
offered its highly mobile AMX-10 RCs -- offensive weapons long seen as
off-limits by hesitant Western nations.
Zelensky has pleaded for
modern, Western-designed heavy tanks, which analysts say are crucial to the
ongoing battle in eastern Ukraine, where heavy armour is needed to punch
through entrenched defensive lines.
Zelensky issued a "call
for speed" in a barely veiled reference to Germany where Chancellor Olaf
Scholz is weighing whether to greenlight the export of its highly regarded
Leopard tanks.
"The time the Free World
uses to think is used by the terrorist state to kill," Zelensky told
delegates in Davos.
He referred to "three
minutes on January 14, the time it took for a Russian missile to travel
hundreds of kilometres to hit a residential block in Dnipro, and killing at
least 45 people."
Rescuers called off their
search for survivors in the eastern city on Wednesday, with 20 people still
missing.
"The world must not
hesitate today or ever," Zelensky added.
Leaders and ministers from
Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Britain have added their voices in recent days
to a growing clamour for Berlin to approve the export of Leopards to Ukraine.
After several meetings in
Davos, where a large Ukrainian delegation has been lobbying all week, Kyiv
mayor Vitali Klitschko told AFP that he had "very good and positive
signals" that new weapons would be announced for Ukraine on Friday.
Also speaking Wednesday,
Scholz defended Berlin's record as a military supplier to Ukraine, telling
delegates in Davos that his country was third behind the United States and
Britain.
The 64-year-old, who heads a
tricky multi-party ruling coalition, dodged a direct question about Leopards
and criticism of his perceived dawdling.
"We are never doing
something just by ourselves but together with others, especially the United
States," he said, while reminding listeners that German arms such as the
Iris-T air defence systems were playing a key role in defending Ukraine.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung
newspaper later reported that Scholz was prepared to deliver Leopard tanks, but
on one condition.
"In a telephone
conversation with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday, Scholz made it clear that
Germany could only give in to the pressure to deliver if the US delivered
Abrams battle tanks," the newspaper reported, without naming its sources.
The Wall Street Journal also
reported that Germany would not agree to provide Leopards without a US pledge
to send its own tanks, citing senior German officials.
A spokesman for the German
government did not want to confirm the reports when contacted by AFP.
A senior Pentagon official
said Wednesday that the United States is not currently prepared to provide
Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing difficulties in maintenance and training.
"I just don't think we're
there yet," US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Colin Kahl told
journalists when asked about the issue, though he did not completely rule out a
shift in the future.
Polish President Andrzej Duda,
whose country is awaiting Berlin's green light to send around 14 Leopards to
Ukraine, said providing heavy tanks was a "very, very, very good
idea" on Tuesday.
Finland has also offered to
supply some of its Leopard tanks.
"We hope that this
decision (to deliver Leopards) will be made real, and Finland is definitely
ready to play its part in that support," Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto
said on Tuesday. - AFP
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