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💡 SPOTLIGHT
Western tanks to Ukraine trigger Russian threats — but also fears of major counterattack![]()
Germany and the U.S. overcame months of reluctance in the past 24 hours to commit to sending heavy combat tanks to Ukraine. Russia responded with official bluster, but others in Moscow fear that the tanks delivery could be a gamechanger on the battlefield.
A week of growing expectations of a coming Russian offensive was turned on its head Wednesday as Germany and the U.S. announced their intention to send heavy combat tanks to Ukraine.
The sudden show of resolve on supplying tanks — after months of reluctance, particularly from Germany — has prompted some Russians to fear that Ukraine will now be equipped for a major counterattack. That would be a significant reversal after speculation had been growing this month about a Russian spring offensive.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government confirmed Wednesday morning that Berlin plans to send at least 14 German-built Leopard 2 tanks to the frontline. U.S. media also reported that Joe Biden’s administration is expected to officially announce Washington's commitment, with at least 30 M1 Abrams tanks expected to be sent.
The timeline remains unclear as to when the vehicles would make it into combat. Still, both sides on the war acknowledged that it is a significant development with the potential to change the math on the battlefield.
Official Russian response was loaded with typical incendiary rhetoric. Dmitry Peskov, press secretary to Russian president Vladimir Putin, said the new tanks would "burn like all the rest, only these ones are expensive.”
Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to the U.S., told state media company TASS that the news was “another blatant provocation” and that U.S. tanks would “be destroyed by our military “the same all other NATO equipment has and will be destroyed.”
One Russian political commentator Ivan Arkatov told media site Novorossiya that Germany’s announcement, which followed America’s, showed that the U.S. was the puppet-master of the West.
“This is an indicator of Germany's lack of sovereignty. It is not for nothing that a large number of U.S. military bases are located in Germany. If the Germans are already under the spell of the Americans, what can we say about other Western countries?”
Until now, the U.S. and Germany have resisted pressure to join the British military — which promised last week to send a dozen Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine — in sending heavy armor to Ukraine, fearing the move would escalate the conflict and make NATO a direct party to the war with Russia. Washington has also previously cited the extensive training and maintenance that the high-tech Abrams tanks demand.
While the reported number of tanks is likely to fall short of the 300 Ukraine says it needs to win the war, the move could spark a chain reaction of other Western nations sending similar aid — including France, where the government is also considering sending its own Leclerc tanks to the frontline.
This would allow Ukraine to make substantial attacks on the ground and, combined with the Patriot air defense systems pledged by the U.S. at the end of last year, could help Ukraine to make serious progress on the battlefield.
Pro-Putin political scientist Sergei Markov wrote on his Telegram channel that he feared “All this was being done for the planned spring offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the command of NATO generals.”
Russian political scientist Malek Dudakov shared Markov’s concerns, but suggested that a possible offensive may not come as early as spring. “Washington will have to make concessions. They will need to specifically purchase Abrams for Ukraine, since it was not part of their original plan to give away their tanks,” Dudakov suggested.
Commenters on a RIA Novosti article reporting the announcement were also fearful. “Now that Kyiv is being supplied directly with tanks, our men will become exhausted,” one person said. “They will pour a hundred tanks into the fire every three months. It will drag out the conflict. If we want to succeed we will need to use bombers from the air.”
Another commenter stressed the need for Russia to actively prepare for the coming offensive, if it hoped to interrupt the battlefield defeats that have become all too common for Russia: “(Ukraine) will prepare a major offensive with the participation of all Western Challenger tanks, Leopards and armored vehicles sent to Ukraine,” the commenter said. “I hope this time our intelligence will be able to figure out where this offensive will be and the army will be ready to avoid another Kharkiv repeat.”
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Russia fires missiles at Ukraine after Western tank deal:Russia has launched missiles towards Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least one person. This comes a day after Germany and the U.S. have agreed to supply Kyiv with modern battlefield tanks. The Ukrainian military said it had shot down all 24 drones sent overnight by Russia and no damage has been reported.
• Israeli army kills nine Palestinians: Israeli troops have killed nine Palestinians including an elderly woman in a raid on the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp. Israel has also been accused of using tear gas inside a children’s hospital ward.
• EU to send people back to home countries: The European Union migration ministers met on Thursday to discuss visa restrictions and better coordination inside the bloc to be able to send back to their home countries those people with no right to asylum in Europe.
• Machete attack at Spanish church: A man killed a church official and severely injured a priest with a machete at two Catholic churches in the Spanish city of Algeciras. The man has been arrested and prosecutors have opened a “terrorism” investigation into the attacks.
• Trump allowed back on Facebook and Instagram: Meta-run platforms Facebook and Instagram announced that they will reinstate the accounts of former U.S. President Donald Trump following a two year suspension after the Capitol riots in 2021.
• Odessa added to UNESCO endangered sites list: The United Nations’ cultural agency has added Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odessa to its list of World Heritage sites and to recognize “the outstanding universal value of the site and the duty of all humanity to protect it,'' as the city continues to face the threat of destruction under Russian shelling. Landmarks of an ancient Yemeni kingdom and a modernist concrete fair park in Lebanon have been added to UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger.
• Paris Hilton announces first baby: Paris Hilton announced the birth of her first child with husband Carter Reum via a post on instagram. The name has yet to be revealed.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Spanish daily ABC devotes its front page to the “possible Jihadist attack” that saw a machete-wielding man kill a church official and severely injure a priest at two Catholic churches in Algeciras, in the south of the country.
💬 LEXICON
Invasion Day
Tens of thousands of people marked Australia’s national day by attending “Invasion Day” rallies in cities across the country, in support of Indigenous people. Australia Day on Jan. 26, which commemorates the anniversary of the landing of the first British fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788, has grown increasingly divisive as the country is facing a rising political and social reckoning of its colonial history and the oppression suffered by Indigenous Australians.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
"Here, he wasn't hiding" — How mob boss Messina Denaro defied his fugitive status
Italy's most-wanted fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro lived in the open in a small town in Sicily, near his birthplace, thanks to widespread silence and complicity from his neighbors. It was essential to evading police for more than 30 years, report Niccolò Zancan and Giuseppe Legato in Italian daily La Stampa.
🇮🇹🏙️ People saw Matteo Messina Denaro buying beauty products, or shopping at the supermarket. They saw him sometimes with a driver who picked him up at home when he had to go to Palermo for cancer treatment. He didn’t hide: he ate at restaurants. For at least a year, Italy’s most-wanted fugitive had been moving through the streets of Campobello di Mazara, 10 km from Castelvetrano, the town where he was born, the center of his criminal power.
✊ On the evening of his arrest, the mayor wrote on Facebook, inviting his fellow citizens to an impromptu demonstration in front of the Pirandello Institute, the only school in town. But the appeal fell on deaf ears. Some students with colorful banners showed up, but no parents. “That hurts too,” says the mayor. “Nobody saw and nobody knew?” wondered headmaster Giulia Flavio. “I am bewildered by the news that is coming in.”
🤐 Here is the map: it is a map of complicity. Sometimes it’s silence; other times, concrete support. The fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro was not hiding. Here in Campobello di Mazara, he felt safe. “I fear that this is only the beginning of the investigation into the network of Matteo Messina Denaro’s backers,” said Castiglione, the mayor. “But it is right. Every complicity must be uncovered. Every doubt must be clarified. This country must rebel. We are not all mafiosi here.”
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
+33%
Opium production in Myanmar surged to a nine-year high, having produced +33% more in 2022 than in 2021, the year of the military coup. Faced with the ensuing economic, security and governance disruptions, many in Myanmar were left with little option but to move back to opium.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
Meta has announced that it will allow former U.S. President Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram. Trump had been banned from the social media platforms for two years after the 2021 Capitol riots. — Photo: Adrien Fillon/ZUMA
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• How Blocking Sweden's NATO Bid Plays Right Into Erdogan's Election Campaign — FRANCE INTER
• Modi's Fight Against "Fake News" Looks A Whole Lot Like Censorship — THE WIRE
• Why More Countries Are Banning Foreigners From Buying Real Estate — WORLDCRUNCH✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright, Ginevra Falciani, Bertrand Hauger and Anne-Sophie Goninet
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Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.
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