BRUSSELS — A number of countries announced new military aid packages to Ukraine on Thursday, the day before their defense ministers met at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, in a bid to coordinate their aid to Ukraine.
The meeting in Germany will include officials from up to 50 countries, chaired by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, and will focus on how to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs, including advanced Western tanks to fight try to advance withdrawal of Russian troops from occupied territories in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine and some of its allies have been pressuring Germany to supply or authorize the export of its advanced Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, but Berlin wants Washington in particular to be part of a collective decision to send Western tanks.
To boost the Ramstein gathering, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and his Estonian counterpart Hanno Pevkur hosted a meeting of their Baltic and central European counterparts at an army base in Estonia to announce more military aid to Ukraine.
Some of the donations listed in the so-called Tallinn Pledge – also signed by Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Slovakia – had already been announced, including the UK’s pledge Challenger sends 2 tanks. Others appeared new, including another round of Brimstone missiles from Britain and S-60 anti-aircraft guns with 70,000 pieces of ammunition from Poland.
The countries said in a joint statement that they have pledged to “jointly pursue the delivery of an unprecedented series of donations” in support of Ukraine.
“Together we will continue to support Ukraine’s transition from resistance to expulsion of Russian forces from Ukrainian soil,” the statement said.
Western officials say Ukraine has but a narrow window before an expected Russian spring offensive, and it did work on accelerating heavy, sophisticated weapons to Kyiv.
In Brussels, after a meeting of senior NATO defense officials known as the Military Committee, whose chairman, Adm. Rob Bauer of the Netherlands, and the highest American officer in Europe, General Christopher G. Cavoli, that high quality tanks are important to Ukraine as part of what they called “a balance of all systems”.
“There is no specific weapon system that is a silver bullet,” General Cavoli said. “In the end, attacking is simply a matter of balancing firepower, mobility, and protection,” and tanks can play an important role in military success.
The officers cautiously emphasized that individual nations would make their own decisions about supplying specific weapon systems to Ukraine, but made it clear that the Russians would be rebuilding their own military stockpiles.
“In a war like the one being fought, every type of equipment is necessary,” said Admiral Bauer. “And the Russians are fighting with tanks. So the Ukrainians also need tanks.”
Ahead of the Ramstein meeting, details of new arms aid emerged, including plans by the United States for a $2.5 billion package that includes the following nearly 100 Stryker combat vehiclesand a commitment by Sweden to supply NLAW anti-tank missiles and CV90 infantry fighting vehicles in its largest equipment package to date.
Estonia said the package, which it announced Thursday as part of the Tallinn Pledge, is also its largest-ever military aid package to Ukraine, including long-range and anti-tank weapons and ammunition, totaling 113 million euros, or about $122 million. Military aid to Ukraine will increase to 370 million euros, or just over 1 percent of Estonia’s gross domestic product.
“The free world must continue to provide arms assistance to Ukraine, and on a much larger scale and faster,” Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in a statement. “All countries need to look at their inventories and make sure industries are able to produce more and faster.”
