Sign in
Germany faced continued pressure Saturday after a key meeting of Western allies failed to come up with a deal to supply Ukraine with the battle tanks Kyiv says are a crucial part of its bid to take on entrenched Russian forces. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania issued a joint appeal Saturday, urging Berlin to provide tanks “now,” adding: “Germany as the leading European power has special responsibility in this regard.”
Germany has so far been unwilling to supply its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, or authorize other nations that use the German-made vehicles to transfer them. It has linked its position on the Leopards to U.S. reluctance to transfer its own M1 Abrams tanks, which Pentagon officials have said are not the best fit for Ukraine in terms of operability and the time they would take to arrive.
Ukrainian Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Saturday urged countries to “think faster,” writing on Twitter that the international community would eventually “help Ukraine with the necessary weapons anyway and realize that there is no other option to end the war … today’s indecision is killing more of our people. Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians.”
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
What is the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary entity in Ukraine? The Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, a network of private security contractors, will be designated a criminal organization, the White House announced Friday. The group, which has an estimated 50,000 fighters on the ground in Ukraine, has reportedly led key offensives including the recent fighting in Soledar.
But Wagner’s growing presence on the battlefield has also irked Russian military leaders who have either ignored or dismissed its claims of victory, write Miriam Berger and Adam Taylor. In recent years, the group has served primarily as a tactical tool of Moscow in places where Russia has political or financial interests, such as Syria.