Katerina Schwartz, Vitaly Saenko21:21, 14.02.23

We are talking about both modern Western weapons and refurbished Soviet ones.

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says the allies have committed to transfer armored vehicles and tanks to more than “eight combat brigades” to Ukraine.

According to an UNIAN correspondent, he said this at a briefing after the meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine (Ramstein-9), which took place in Brussels (Belgium). Austin noted that the Rammstein 9 meeting confirmed that the allies would support Ukraine in its defense against Russia in the long term.

“And we will act with the urgency that the moment demands,” Austin said. “We continue to work together to provide full robust capabilities, and not just hardware. And that’s why we discussed synchronizing our efforts for an integrated exercise plan (for Ukrainian military – UNIAN) You can see the importance of our coordination and joint efforts to meet the needs of Ukraine in armored vehicles.”

In particular, he said that the members of the contact group provided armored vehicles for more than “eight combat brigades” to the Ukrainian defenders. According to Austin, we are talking about American armored vehicles Bradley, Stryker, M1 Abrams tanks, British Challenger 2 tanks, Canadian Senator armored vehicles, German Leopard tanks, as well as refurbished Soviet T-72 tanks.

He reaffirmed that Italy and France are preparing to transfer SAMP-T air defense systems to Ukraine .

Meanwhile, the Nordsee-Zeitung published a photo of military equipment for Ukraine that arrived in the German port of Bremergafen from the United States. In particular, we are talking about the Avenger air defense system and the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle.

In addition to Bradley, local journalists counted another 280 different military vehicles.

“Rammstein-9” – what weapons will Ukraine get

As UNIAN reported, today, February 14, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said that 11 countries promised to transfer tanks to Ukraine, 16 pledged to transfer artillery and ammunition , 22 countries – infantry fighting vehicles and 9 more countries – air defense systems.

In addition, Austin said that he could not announce the transfer of combat aircraft to Ukraine , including F-16 fighters, today.In addition, Austin said that he could not announce the transfer of combat aircraft to Ukraine , including F-16 fighters, today.

He noted that now the main task is to bring together all the types of weapons that have already been promised to Ukraine. In particular, we are talking about Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, Stryker armored fighting vehicles, Marder and CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles, M113 armored personnel carriers, artillery, but the list is not limited to this.In addition, as Austin said, it is necessary to prepare the Ukrainian military for the use of these types of weapons, as well as ensure that all these systems are maintained and delivered to the front line.Earlier, Austin said that eight countries are cooperating to provide Ukraine with Leopard main battle tanks: Germany, Poland, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands.

(C)UNIAN 2023