China News Service, January 20th. According to foreign media reports, on the 20th local time, an important meeting was held at the Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.
Defense officials from 50 countries, led by the United States, met to discuss a new plan to provide Ukraine with a package of military equipment.
However, German Defense Minister Pistorius said that no agreement could be reached on the supply of German-made tanks to Ukraine.
Image source: Screenshot of the Associated Press report
On the 20th, many people including US Secretary of Defense Austin, German Defense Minister Pistorius, British Defense Secretary Wallace, Ukrainian Defense Minister Reznikov and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg attended the Ukrainian National Defense Conference. Liaison group meeting.
Before the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to speed up military assistance to Kyiv.
"Time is Russia's weapon, we have to hurry," he said.
Austin said that the Russian-Ukrainian situation is about to usher in a "turning point", and he called on allies not to "slow down" on the issue of providing aid to Kyiv.
Stoltenberg also said earlier that he hoped that the meeting would be able to make a decision on the supply of heavy weapons to Kyiv.
However, the meeting was overshadowed by debate over whether Germany should allow its allies to supply Ukraine with German-made battle tanks.
Fearful of an escalation, Germany opposed a proposal led by Poland that would have NATO allies supply Ukraine with some German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Poland said Ukraine could receive as many as 100 of these tanks from NATO allies under the proposal.
The United States and its allies are increasingly pressuring German Chancellor Scholz to approve the export of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
But Scholz has yet to back down, saying Germany will only agree to the request if the United States agrees to supply American-made M1 Abrams battle tanks, which the United States says it is not ready to do.
On the 20th local time, German Defense Minister Pistorius stated that at the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group meeting held that day, no agreement could be reached on the provision of German-made tanks to Ukraine.
"We discussed the possibility of supplying Panther tanks. It should be said that there was no consensus on this issue."
Russian President’s Press Secretary Peskov pointed out that there is no need to exaggerate the significance of NATO’s supply of heavy weapons to Kyiv. This will not change anything at all and will only bring more problems to Ukraine.