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Added on the 17/01/2023 15:19:30 - Copyright : France 24 EN
Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius says he believes the EU member will manage to send a first battalion of tanks to war-torn Ukraine by April. "I think we could deliver at least one battalion in the first four months of this year. Three months maybe. And then we have to proceed as fast as possible of course," he tells reporters while on a visit to Warsaw. SOUNDBITE
On the occasion of his first military troop visit to the Altengrabow training ground, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius answers a question from an English-speaking journalist about the delivery of German tanks to Ukraine, saying that they should be sent "at the end of March" this year.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, the focus is increasingly on the need to provide Kyiv with Western tanks. While thousands of the armoured vehicles have been destroyed on both sides, Ukraine overwhelmingly uses older Soviet-era tanks, and is gradually running out.
Why the tanks? Vladimir Putin wanted a lightning capture of Kyiv but seems happy to settle for a long artillery war that potentially lasts years. Ukraine’s allies argue that only tanks can speed up a win. We ask why and look at the World War One-style trench warfare that is flattening city after city in the Donbas.
Heavy armour including Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks on the agenda as NATO summit in Germany discusses new aid packages for Ukraine.
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