Day 321: Arming Ukraine with Modern Battle Tanks Not Ruled Out, Says NATO Chief
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has reportedly said that supplying Western tanks to Ukraine, such as the German Leopard or American Abrams, has not been ruled out as a course of action. Stoltenberg also stated that an "increase of arms shipments is the road to peace for the Ukrainians."
Facts
- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has reportedly said that supplying Western tanks to Ukraine, such as the German Leopard or American Abrams, has not been ruled out as a course of action. Stoltenberg also stated that an "increase of arms shipments is the road to peace for the Ukrainians."
- Stoltenberg's remarks coincided with the formal signing of a joint declaration by NATO and the EU, committing them to using their partnership to counter Russia's war on Ukraine and to boost security in the broader Euro-Atlantic region.
- Meanwhile, Russia has reportedly made "tactical advances" near Bakhmut and is close to capturing Soledar – a small but strategically significant salt mining town in eastern Ukraine – the UK's defense ministry claimed on Tuesday.
- In his nightly video address on Monday, Ukraine's Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy conceded that Soledar was completely destroyed, noting that the town is, "covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes."
- Elsewhere, Russia's defense ministry admitted a Russian warship armed with hypersonic cruise weapons conducted an air defense exercise in the Norwegian Sea, "to repel the means of an air attack of a simulated enemy."
- Meanwhile, Russia's defense chief Sergey Shoigu vowed to continue to develop the country's nuclear triad and maintain its combat readiness in 2023 to "guarantee Russia's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Sources: Tass, DW, CNBC, Newsweek, and Reuters.
Narratives
- Anti-Russia narrative, as provided by The Washington Post. As the war shifts to the strategically important Donbas region of Donetsk, the US and its allies need to continue to do everything in their power to arm Ukraine with all the weapons they need. Doing so is the only way to push Putin's forces back as was done in Kyiv.
- Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by Republic World. As stated by Putin, the whole purpose of the war was never to invade Kyiv, but to liberate the ethnically Russian people of Donetsk and Luhansk, who have been subjected to systematic killing by Ukrainian forces for not recognizing the 2014 coup in Kyiv.
