WAR IN UKRAINE: January 22, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 333
Ukraine's defence minister has said he had a "frank discussion" with his German counterpart about German Leopard 2 tanks, which Kyiv is urgently requesting to confront Russian armour. Germany has not yet decided whether to send the tanks to Ukraine, or allow other countries to donate theirs, despite pressure on Berlin to act. "We had a frank discussion on Leopards 2. To be continued," Oleksii Reznikov said after meeting Western allies. The meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany did bring an agreement to supply more armoured vehicles, air defence systems and ammunition - BBC
The foreign ministers of the three Baltic states had this to say in response to Germany’s reluctance to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine: “We, 🇱🇹 🇱🇻🇪🇪 Foreign Ministers, call on Germany to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine now. This is needed to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe quickly. Germany as the leading European power has special responsibility in this regard.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk expressed frustration in an interview with CNN over Germany’s indecision over whether to send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Speaking to CNN’s Isa Soares on Friday, Melnyk called Germany’s lack of action a “disappointment,” after first praising the United Kingdom for moving forward with a pledge of Challenger 2 tanks, adding he hoped the move might prompt other countries to follow suit. In his interview with Soares, Melnyk further expressed Ukraine’s disappointment with Germany’s announcement while holding out hope that Germany would weigh Ukraine’s concerns and could still decide to send the Leopard tanks. “After 331 days of brutal war which Russia has been waging against Ukraine, they are still making an inventory of stocks, of (the) Bundeswehr (the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany) and in the industry, to check whether they have something to send to Ukraine! It is ridiculous,” Melnyk told CNN.
Media: German Defense Minister to visit Ukraine soon. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he plans to visit Ukraine shortly, “probably within the next four weeks.” Answering the Bild am Sonntag’s question about Leopard tanks, Pistorius said, “We are in very close dialogue on this issue with our international partners, above all with the U.S.”
General Staff: Russia has lost 120,160 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24. Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Jan. 21 that Russia had also lost 3,140 tanks, 6,256 armored fighting vehicles, 4,918 vehicles and fuel tanks, 2,135 artillery systems, 443 multiple launch rocket systems, 220 air defense systems, 287 airplanes, 277 helicopters, 1,891 drones, and 17 boats.
Kyiv's ambassador to London, Vadym Prystaiko, says Ukrainian tank crews "will arrive soon" in the United Kingdom to begin training to operate Challenger 2 tanks, which British officials have pledged to provide Ukraine's defenders - RFE/RL
Required reading…
From “Mini-Documentaries” to Major Ones
Success, for Daniel Roher, is bittersweet. While he’s winning praise and awards for Navalny, the subject of his inspiring documentary is in a Siberian gulag
No political documentary that has come out this year is as riveting and at times darkly humorous as Navalny. The film, which has received a number of awards and seems tipped to be short-listed for Academy Award consideration, is an intimate and revealing portrait of Alexei Navalny, the 46-year-old journalist turned Russian-opposition leader who survived a poisoning by Russian operatives and is now in solitary confinement in a Siberian gulag. It allows viewers to witness why its subject is such a transformative—and, for Putin, dangerous—force in Russian politics.
It’s a film filled with surprises—not least its director, Daniel Roher. A charming, disarming 30-year-old Canadian with a bushy head of hair, stubble on his face, and round-framed glasses, who prior to this had made only one feature-length documentary (about Robbie Robertson and the Band), the relatively unknown Roher beat out bigger-name directors with much bigger budgets who had been chasing Navalny. Alexei’s choosing him was, Roher admits to me as we meet up for coffee at Sarabeth’s on Central Park South, “unusual.”
Read the full Air Mail feature here