Germany and Britain have delivered Western heavy tanks to Ukraine, officials said on Monday, providing a key infusion of armored firepower that would aid Kyiv’s battle against invading Russian troops.
The tanks — long an item on Ukraine’s military equipment wish list — were promised to Kyiv earlier this year and have arrived in time for an expected spring offensive by Ukraine’s forces.
As Ukraine gains conventional firepower, the Kremlin vowed to follow through on a plan announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, an initiative which has drawn widespread criticism.
Photo: Reuters / Press Service of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told journalists on Monday that Berlin had provided “very modern” Leopard battle tanks to Kyiv, with the German Ministry of Defense later saying 18 were delivered.
“Our tanks have made it into the hands of our Ukrainian friends as promised and on time,” German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said in a statement.
They are joined by Challenger tanks from Britain, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said.
Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov had said earlier that he inspected a “new addition” to the nation’s forces — Challenger tanks as well as Germany’s Marder infantry fighting vehicles, plus Cougar armored trucks and Stryker armored personnel carriers from the US.
“A year ago, no one would have thought that our partners’ support would be so strong,” Reznikov wrote on Facebook.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Western criticism of Putin’s tactical nuclear weapon announcement “cannot influence Russian plans.”
Speaking in a televised interview two days earlier, Putin said Moscow would station the tactical nuclear weapons “without violating our international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday told the visiting head of the International Atomic Energy Agency that it was not possible to restore safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with Russia still in control, ahead of Rafael Grossi’s visit to the site.
“Without the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and personnel from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and adjacent territory, any initiatives to restore nuclear safety and security are doomed to failure,” Zelenskiy told Grossi, a statement from the presidency said.
Grossi is expected to visit the nuclear plant later this week.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian missiles punched through buildings in the town of Sloviansk, killing two people in their cars and wounding more than 30, police said.
A blood-stained cap lay at the side of the street, next to a parked car whose front seat was covered with blood and shattered glass.
Police said the missiles were Russian-made S-300s.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and