Germany’s foreign minister has visited the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov, promising more weapons and raising hopes that Berlin will release Leopard 2 tanks to help break the deadlock in the nearly 11-month war.
Annalena Baerbock’s surprise trip – along with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba – also promised further humanitarian aid during the deep winter in Ukraine and help for Kyiv in its efforts to join the EU.
Arriving in Kharkiv, which was badly damaged by months of Russian missile attacks, Baerbock said Ukrainians “should know that they can count on our solidarity and support” and “that includes further arms shipments”.
The minister did not directly refer to permission to deliver the Leopard 2, which is much in demand by Ukraine, but the tone of her talks with Kuleba appeared to have been positive, with both sides hinting at future military assistance.
“Kharkiv is now a symbol of successful Ukrainian counter-offensives, proving that Ukraine will win with sufficient support from partners. I have no doubts that further German military aid will come,” said the Foreign Minister of Ukraine.
Baerbock also pledged more aid, stressing that Germany had supplied generators, transformers and fuel to help Ukraine through the winter. Berlin will also make “concrete offers” to help Ukraine take the necessary steps to join the EU.
Germany last week pledged, after months of ambiguity, to send 40 Marder armored infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) to Ukraine, alongside the US, which is supplying 50 similar Bradleys.
On Monday, the UK said it was considering supplying a small number of its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, the first time a western country had indicated it was ready to send its heaviest tanks.
Ukraine is particularly keen to acquire Leopard 2 as there are more than 2,000 in Europe in service in 13 countries. But if they are to be exported again, Berlin’s approval is required, and Germany is concerned about the risk of the conflict escalating.
A pivotal moment is expected to come next week when Western defense ministers meet on January 20 for the next Ukraine Contact Group meeting to discuss future military aid. The US is now reportedly considering announcing at this meeting that it will be sending Stryker armored fighting vehicles.
Western officials believe Ukraine needs large numbers of tanks and combat vehicles to help its forces break through increasingly fortified Russian front lines, which have not moved significantly in nearly two months.
“Somebody has to break the deadlock here,” an official said Tuesday on condition of anonymity. “The balance of power between the Russians and the Ukrainians is too close, too finely balanced.” They said that while Russia had more troops, Ukraine had an increasing amount of higher quality Western equipment.
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Ukraine’s defense minister and top general have said their country needs 300 tanks and 600-700 combat vehicles to drive out the Russians and win the war on the ground. These are not “inappropriate numbers” to help Kyiv win, the western official added in a briefing.
Elsewhere, there are clear signs that the West is increasing the pace of its support. Ukrainian soldiers will travel to a US base near Oklahoma City for training on the Patriot missile defense system that Washington announced last month. The training will probably last several months.
The West is also beginning to believe that Russia may have failed in its attempt to destroy Ukraine’s power grid over the winter. “We now know that there hasn’t been a wave of strikes for almost 10 days,” the official added, raising hopes that Moscow was finally running out of missile stocks.
Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s Security Council, said in a newspaper interview that the conflict in Ukraine had “become a military confrontation between Russia and NATO and, most importantly, the US and Britain” in order to rally support for the war in his homeland strengthen .
The senior politician, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the West’s plan was to “pull Russia further apart and eventually just wipe it off the political map of the world” and that the US was “a shell for a conglomerate giant corporations that rule the country and are trying to rule the world”.