UKRAINE: Ukraine asks its western allies to supply heavy tanks to bolster the firepower of its army as the battle grinds on, raging into its 11th month.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video talk on Wednesday, urged western countries to supply his army with heavy weapons and tanks, such as German-made Leopard tanks and the Abrams, to fight the Russian troops.
In response, the US and other allies are now poised to provide a range of armoured battle vehicles to Ukraine after resisting Kyiv’s request for tanks for months to face combat against increasingly entrenched Russian forces along the extensive southern and eastern fronts.
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that his nation would send light AMX-10 RC armoured battle vehicles to aid in the war. Zelenskiy thanked Macron but stated, “There is no rational reason why Ukraine has not yet been supplied with Western tanks.”
Joe Biden, the US president, said on Wednesday that the US was thinking about sending Bradley battle vehicles to Ukraine. Since the middle of the 1980s, the Bradley, which boasts a potent gun, has been a mainstay of the American Army for carrying troops.
However, Biden’s decision would fall short of delivering the Abrams tanks that Ukraine has requested. United States is planning another shipment of weapons that may be revealed in the upcoming days, in addition to the nearly $21.3 billion in security support that has already been given to Ukraine.
Ukraine tries to recapture its territories
Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s eastern region on Thursday, a fresh battle broke out with Russian troops as Kyiv tried to drive out occupying forces.
According to the Ukrainian military, the Russian military was focusing on an offensive in the Bakhmut sector of the Donetsk region despite their failures in the Avdiivka and Kupiansk sectors.
In the meantime, the governor of the nearby region of Luhansk claimed that Ukrainian forces were “step-by-step” retaking certain districts, but he also warned that it was “not happening fast.”
The Donbas region, which includes the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk, is the industrial hub of Ukraine. In 2014, proxies backed by Russia captured some of this region.
After referendums that Ukraine and Western nations deemed illegal, Russia annexed the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia in September. None of the four regions is completely under Russian authority.
Bakhmut, which is situated along a vital supply route connecting the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, is important because the Russian government needs a victory to maintain its credibility with the Russian people after a run of military setbacks, but it is now mostly in ruins after being shelled for months by Russian artillery.
There, fighting has been so fierce that both sides’ commanders have referred to it as a “meat grinder.” 800 Russian servicemen, mostly as a result of fighting in Donetsk, according to the Ukrainian military, were estimated to have perished the day before. The figure, which would indicate a sizable death toll for a single day, could not be independently confirmed.
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