The Kremlin said it had promised the delivery of Western tanks as evidence of the growing “direct involvement” of the United States and Europe in the 11-month-old conflict, both of which deny.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power producer, said it was conducting pre-emptive emergency shutdowns in Kyiv, the surrounding region and the regions of Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk.
In Odessa, the Black Sea port designated a “world heritage in danger” site by the UN cultural agency UNESCO on Wednesday, Russian missiles damaged energy facilities, officials said, just as French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was arriving .
Colonna was due to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to discuss humanitarian and military aid and potentially France could join its NATO allies in supplying Ukraine with battle tanks, in which case it has its own Leclerc model.
Both Moscow and Kyiv, which have so far relied on Soviet-era T-72 tanks, are expected to launch new ground offensives in the spring.
‘Fist of Freedom’
Ukraine is seeking hundreds of modern tanks so that they can be used to break through Russian defensive lines and capture territory held in the south and east.
“The key now is speed and volume. Speed in training our forces, speed in supplying tanks to Ukraine. Numbers in tank support,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Wednesday.
“We have to make such a ‘tank fist’, such a ‘freedom fist’.”
Maintaining the drumbeat of Kyiv’s requests, Zelensky said he had spoken to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and asked for long-range missiles and aircraft.
Ukraine’s allies have already provided billions of dollars in military aid, including sophisticated US missile systems, that have helped turn the tide of the war.
The United States had been wary of deploying its difficult-to-maintain M1 Abrams tanks, but eventually promised 31 that it would persuade Germany to pledge its more easily operated German-built Leopards.
Germany would initially send 14 tanks from its inventory and approve shipments by Allied European states, with the ultimate aim of equipping two battalions – in the region of 100 tanks.
It said its Leopards should be operational in three to four months, and Britain said on Thursday it expected 14 Challenger tanks to be sent to Ukraine in two months.
But analysts said Ukrainian commanders may be less cautious in deploying the tanks they already have, knowing that replacements are coming.
Leopard is a system that any NATO member can serve, and crews and mechanics can be trained together, Ukrainian military expert Viktor Kavlyuk told Espresso TV.
“If we have been provided with these vehicles and brought to this club, I would say our prospects are looking good.”
fighting in eastern Ukraine