Ukraine and Russia: what you need to know

The United States and Germany announced plans to send Ukraine dozens of modern tanks, hailed by Kyiv as a potential turning point in its battle to repel Russia’s invasion but denounced by Moscow as an “extremely dangerous” step.

WEAPONRY

* The key to providing tanks was speed and sufficient numbers, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. He’s also spoken to NATO and called for supplies of long-range missiles and aircraft to add to the commitment of tanks by the United States and Germany.

* Germany’s decision paves the way for other countries such as Poland, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway to supply some of their Leopard tanks to Ukraine, going some way towards delivering the hundreds of tanks that Ukraine says it needs.

* It might take many months for the powerful US tanks that President Joe Biden agreed to send to Ukraine to reach their destination, the White House said.

* Russia reacted with fury to Germany’s decision to approve delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, saying Berlin was abandoning its “historical responsibility to Russia” arising from Nazi crimes in World War II.

* Russia’s ambassador in Washington said deliveries of US tanks would be “another blatant provocation”.

FIGHTING

* The head of the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said units of the Wagner contract militia were advancing in the town of Bakhmut and a senior Ukrainian official said fighting there and in a second town was growing fiercer.

* The Kyiv government acknowledged its forces had withdrawn from Soledar, a small salt-mining town near Bakhmut that Russia claimed to capture more than a week ago, its biggest gain for more than six months.

* Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.

DIPLOMACY

* The European Court of Human Rights allowed cases brought against Russia by Ukraine and the Netherlands over allegations of human rights violations in the breakaway Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, and the shooting down of flight MH17.

* The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO designated the historic centre of Odesa, on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, a World Heritage in Danger site.

QUOTES

“We must form such a tank force, such a freedom force that after it strikes, tyranny will never again rise up.” – Ukraine leader Zelenskiy.

“They burn just like all the rest.” – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, on the prospect of US tanks going to Ukraine.