Austin warns US allies time is short before Russian offensive

Bloomberg

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said time is running out to give Ukraine the advanced weapons it needs before an expected Russian offensive in the spring, as both the US and Germany hold out against Kyiv’s requests for their most powerful battle tanks.
Austin said allied officials agreed at a meeting in Germany on Friday they would ensure that Ukraine gets the weapons it needs and the training to use them properly. He sought to play down any discord over whether to provide heavy tanks, which have been a key demand as Ukraine looks to blunt Russian forces in the east.
“We have a window of opportunity here between now and the spring, whenever they commence their operation, their counteroffensive, and that’s not a long time,” Austin said of Russia’s intentions. “We have to pull together the right capabilities.”
Austin spoke after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a US-assembled gathering of defense ministers that announced major new commitments of weapons, including an additional $2.5 billion of Bradley fighting vehicles, Stryker vehicles and other equipment from US stocks. But the meeting, intended to highlight allied unity, was overshadowed by Germany’s continued refusal to provide its Leopard 2 tank. The US argues that the Leopard is in plentiful supply and could get to Ukraine quickly. But German officials have said they don’t want to move without similar commitments from other nations. At the same time, the US has resisted Ukraine’s requests for the M1 Abrams tank, which the Biden administration argues is a costly gas-guzzler that would be too difficult to maintain and supply on the Ukrainian battlefield.
While German officials said they still hadn’t made a decision on sending Leopards, they did signal Ukraine might eventually get what it wants. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the country will allow other nations to train Ukrainian soldiers on the Leopard.
The step to allow training doesn’t “pre-conclude” any possible decision on provision of the German-made tanks, Pistorius said. “But we are preparing ourselves for every possible case,” he added.
The continued refusal was met with rising frustration by Ukrainian officials.
“It seems like we are always a couple of steps behind and we should be a couple of steps ahead,” Ukraine Defense Ministry adviser Yuriy Sak said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power.” “If the allies don’t give us those tanks, there could be a day when they have to use them themselves.”
Speaking alongside Austin on Friday, US Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley touted successful operations by Ukrainian forces and said “the Russians have suffered a tremendous amount of casualties” across their conventional military as well as among mercenaries from the Wagner Group.
While praising Germany as a reliable ally, Austin said “we all could do more.”

Ramstein ends with no
German or US tank offer
No decision was made on the provision of Germany’s Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine at a key meeting on Friday, but the nation’s new defense minister said Berlin could move quickly if an agreement is reached. The US defense chief said he had no news to share on M1 Abrams tanks.
The US and its allies met at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to discuss assistance for Ukraine, including the provision of heavy weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the meeting by video, calling on allies not to “bargain about the different number of tanks, but to open a principle supply which will stop Russian evil.”
Russian authorities deployed air-defense installations in and around Moscow, including near President Vladimir Putin’s residence, after several recent drone attacks hit the country’s heartland.