Ukraine to get more armoured vehicles but presses for tanks to fight Russia

French President Emmanuel Macron told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that his government will send the AMX-10 RC light armored combat vehicle to support their war effort, a French official said on Wednesday. phone conversation between them.

While the official said these would be the first Western armored vehicles to be delivered to Ukraine, in October Australia said it had given Kiev 90 Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles, a single unit. Armored units are enhanced against mines, small arms and other threats.

US President Joe Biden said later on Wednesday that Washington was considering sending the Bradley Combat Vehicle to Ukraine, the country that since the Russian invasion in February has fought the largest land conflict in the country. Europe since 1945. Cities have been destroyed, millions displaced and tens of thousands of people killed.

The Bradley Armored Vehicle, with its powerful gun, has been the US Army’s primary vehicle for transporting troops across battlefields since the mid-1980s. The US Army has thousands of Bradleys, and they will help Ukraine have add firepower on the battlefield and strengthen their capabilities in trench warfare.

However, Biden’s move will not be able to send the Abrams tank that Ukraine has sought. Kiev has repeatedly asked its Western allies for heavier combat vehicles such as Abrams and German-made Leopard tanks.

In a video address later in the evening, Zelenskiy thanked Macron for the announcement and said it showed other allies needed to supply heavier weapons.

“This is what sends a clear signal to all our partners. There is no logical reason why Ukraine has not been supplied with Western tanks,” he said.

FIGHT IN THE EAST

A senior US administration official on Wednesday offered a sobering assessment of the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, particularly around the largely ruined Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. The official said fierce fighting is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, although Russian forces have made incremental progress.

“The fighting is still pretty intense… I think what we’re seeing in Bakhmut, we should expect elsewhere along the front that there will be continued fighting in the coming months. .”

In his video address, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops outside Bakhmut were inflicting a lot of damage on the Russians and said Moscow was building up its forces in the region.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield accounts.

RUSSIA CALLS REGION AREA

Zelenskiy last month told the US Congress that tens of billions of dollars in US aid to help the country fight a Russian invasion is not charity, but an investment in global security.

The United States is preparing another arms aid package that could be announced in the coming days in addition to about $21.3 billion in security assistance so far to Ukraine.

The United States has increased the capabilities of the weapons it has sent to include the Stinger man-portable air defense missile as well as the Javelin anti-tank missile, the HIMARS missile system, and the NASAMS surface-to-air missile.

During Zelenskiy’s visit to Washington, the United States pledged to send a sophisticated Patriot missile system to repel Russian missile and drone attacks.

An official from the intelligence department of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Andriy Cherniak, said in comments to the RBC-Ukraine media outlet that Kiev is not expected to give in to Russia’s offensive this year regardless despite heavy loss of life.

“According to estimates of Ukrainian military intelligence, in the next 4-5 months the Russian army could lose up to 70,000 people. And the leadership of the occupying state (Russia) is ready for such losses.” Cherniak said.

Russian leaders “understand that they will lose but they have no plans to end the war,” he said.

In a signal to the West that Russia will not back down from Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday sent a frigate to the Atlantic Ocean armed with a new generation of supersonic cruise missiles, capable of can travel at 5 times the speed of sound.

Ukraine says Russia has carried out seven missile strikes, 18 air strikes and more than 85 attacks from multiple launch missile systems in the past 24 hours against civilian infrastructure in the cities of Kramatorsk , Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Russia denies intentionally attacking civilians.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Russia would continue to form additional strike units and focus on capturing Bakhmut and other cities north of Donetsk.

Malyar, citing the department’s chief intelligence officer, wrote on messaging app Telegram that Russia’s significant losses mean Moscow will most likely have to announce a second partial mobilization in the first quarter. of year.

Russia launched what it called a “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, citing threats to its own security and the need to protect Russian-speaking people. Ukraine and its allies accuse Russia of waging war without cause to seize territory.

This story has been published from the electronic agency’s feed without any modification to the text.