US President Joe Biden confirmed today, Tuesday, that he will discuss with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, Kyiv’s requests for advanced weapons to confront Russia.
“We will talk,” Biden told reporters, after he answered “no” to a question asked at the White House about his support for sending F-16 fighters to Ukraine.
The Westerners reached a new level in terms of military aid to Ukraine, after Germany and the United States recently announced that they would deliver heavy tanks to Kiev after difficult discussions.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba confirmed that Ukraine will receive “120 to 140” heavy tanks of Western manufacture, a few days after the Westerners gave the green light for these shipments.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls on the West for more military assistance, including Long range missiles and fighters.
Kuleba said in a video clip on Facebook today: “In the first batch of contributions, the Ukrainian forces will receive between 120 and 140 modern Western tanks,” noting that these tanks are German Leopard 2 models. and Challenger 2 British American Abrams.
This is the first time that Kyiv reveals the number of these tanksIts Western allies pledge to provide it.
Ukrainian army on the front lines
But the delivery process may take months, according to diplomatic sources, between repair and maintenance operations, in addition to training Ukrainian soldiers to use it.
Also, some countries, such as France, hesitate at this stage to send their stocks of heavy tanks to Ukraine for fear of weakening its military capabilities.
In this context, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sebastien Lecorno, announced today that France will provide Ukraine with 12 additional Cesar cannons, in addition to the 18 pieces previously delivered by Paris to Kiev.
Locorno said during a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksiy Reznikov, that these 12 medium-range guns “will be funded within the framework of the support fund amounting to 200 million euros” established by France.
Cesar guns, along with Western guns such as the German Panzerhabitz 2000, contributed last year to helping Ukraine hit targets behind Russian lines, which led to the weakening of the Russian attack.
Locorno said the new batch of Howitzers will be delivered in the coming weeks.
Denmark, for its part, offered its fleet of 19 howitzers to the war effort in Ukraine.
