‘We need these tanks,’ Kyiv envoy says – DW – 11/05/2022
Oleksii Makeiev, the new Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, said Kyiv is counting on the delivery of battle tanks from Germany to help it repel Russian forces.
Ukraine is currently in talks with the German government about acquiring modern, Western-made tanks, such as the Leopard 2.
“We have reason to hope that the decision will be made to deliver the Leopard 2 from Germany directly to Ukraine,” Makeiev told newspapers from the Funke media group on Saturday. “We need these tanks.”
He added that it was “time to stop talking about not wanting to provoke Russia. What else is going to happen? How many Buchas, Mariupols or Iziums — places of rape and mass graves — should there be?”
Germany has “shown leadership” with the delivery of the IRIS-T air defense system, the diplomat said. “And we expect this leadership role in other weapon systems. These include main battle tanks and armored vehicles.”
Kyiv has repeatedly asked for modern battle tanks as it seeks to recapture territory in the south and east of the country.
Since Russia’s invasion in February, Germany has sent Ukraine 30 decommissioned Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, 10 Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzers and three Mars multiple rocket launchers. Berlin has also taken part in circular exchanges with third states to provide weapons indirectly to Ukraine. But it has held off on supplying Western-made battle tanks directly.
Makeiev officially became his country’s ambassador to Germany last week. He succeeded Andriy Melnyk, who became known for making unusually sharp criticisms of the German government.
Here are the other main headlines from the war in Ukraine on Saturday, November 5:
Iran admits sending drones to Russia for first time
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, has acknowledged for the first time that his country has supplied Russia with drones.
However, he said the transfer came before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and denied Tehran was continuing to supply drones to Moscow.
Ukraine says Russia has deployed Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones to divebomb Kyiv and other cities — a charge Moscow denies.
“This fuss made by some Western countries that Iran has provided missiles and drones to Russia to help the war in Ukraine — the missile part is completely wrong,” Amirabdollahian was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.
“The drone part is true, and we provided Russia a small number of drones months before the Ukraine war,” he said.
Until now, Iranian officials had denied such shipments.
Amirabdollahian claimed that Iran was oblivious to the use of its drones in Ukraine. He said Tehran remained committed to stopping the conflict.
“If (Ukraine) has any documents in their possession that Russia used Iranian drones in Ukraine, they should provide them to us,” he said. “If it is proven to us that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will not be indifferent to this issue.”
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has vaguely boasted of providing drones to the world’s top powers. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also extolled the efficacy of the drones and mocked Western hand-wringing over their danger.
During state-backed demonstrations to mark the 1979 US Embassy takeover on Friday, crowds waved placards of the triangle-shaped drones as a point of national pride.
Zelenskyy says Ukraine ‘holding positions’ in Donbas
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the heaviest fighting in the country is currently concentrated in the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region.
“We are holding the positions,” Zelenskyy said, despite Russia’s mobilization of more than 300,000 reservists for its invasion. Moscow has already lost thousands of soldiers in the area, he said in his nightly video address.
The Ukrainian president also said he sees no willingness on the part of Moscow to negotiate an end to the war against his country.
Russia is sending tens or hundreds of thousands of people to fight; but those who want to negotiate would not let people die in the “meat grinder,” Zelenskyy said.
Once again, he stressed that Ukraine would fight until it had fully restored its original state borders.
Russia likely struggling to provide training for conscripts — UK Defense Ministry
Russia is probably struggling to provide military training for its current mobilization drive and its annual autumn conscription intake, the British Defence Ministry said in its latest intelligence update.
According to the ministry, newly mobilized conscripts likely have minimal training or no training at all.
“Experienced officers and trainers have been deployed to fight in Ukraine and some have likely been killed in the conflict,” the update read.
Russian forces are conducting training in Belarus due to a shortage of training staff, munitions and facilities in Russia, the ministry added.
More from DW’s coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant in the region of Zaporizhzhia is now running on backup generators after shelling cut off power. The national nuclear power authorities believe the Kremlin intends to connect the plant to Russia’s grid.
dh/nm (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)