Washington has said it is accelerating efforts to deliver US tanks to Ukraine and train the country’s military crews to use them on the battlefield, but again rebuffed Kyiv’s requests for modern Western-built fighter jets such as the F-16.
The US said boosting Ukraine’s ground-based air defences was the priority at a meeting in Germany of officials from about 50 states that are supplying arms to Kyiv, hours after Moscow said one of its warplanes had accidentally dropped a bomb on the Russian city of Belgorod.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington had “expedited our Abrams M1 timelines to supply Ukraine with more armoured capability in the coming months,” referring to tanks that Ukrainian crews are expected to start training on in Germany in June.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said the 31 Abrams M1 tanks that Ukraine is expected to receive “will make a difference” in Kyiv’s efforts to repel a Russian invasion that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.
“There is no silver bullet but I do think the M1 tank, when it is delivered and reaches its operational capability, will be very effective on the battlefield,” he added alongside Mr Austin at the Ramstein air base in Germany where Friday’s meeting took place.
Poland and Slovakia are now giving Ukraine Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, but Kyiv’s repeated requests for F-16s or other Western-built warplanes were rejected again.
“The task is to control the airspace, and how you control that airspace can be done in many, many different ways. The most cost-effective and efficient and…fastest way to do that for Ukraine is air defence,” Gen Milley said, referring to ground-based missile systems. “That is the most important, critical military task right now, and that was the theme of this entire day: air defence, air defence, air defence,” he added.
Ukraine said this month that it had received advanced Patriot air defence batteries from the US and Germany, and several other European states have also delivered rocket systems to protect its skies as it prepares to launch a counter offensive against Russia’s invasion force.
“Right now, what we all believe Ukraine needs most urgently is ground-based air defence capability…it is what is most important in the current fight and in the immediate future,” Mr Austin said. “We have to make sure the Ukrainians have the ability to protect their infrastructure and citizens, but also their troops if they are manoeuvring.”
The US officials said they believed Ukraine could make fresh gains on the battlefield in the coming months, as did Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
“I’m confident that they will now be in a position to be able to liberate even more land,” Mr Stoltenberg said on the sidelines of the Ramstein talks.
Russia’s defence ministry said one of its warplanes had accidentally dropped a bomb on Thursday night on the city of Belgorod, about 40km from the Ukrainian border. Local officials said three people were hurt and several buildings and cars damaged in the blast.
