Leopard 2

The United States will begin training Ukrainian forces on how to use and maintain Abrams tanks in the coming weeks, as it continues to speed up its effort to get them onto the battlefield as quickly as possible, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday.

Day 379 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

German authorities will send "Leopard 2" tanks to Ukraine and allow their export by other countries, said the spokesman of the German government.
Germany's decision paves the way for Poland, Spain and Norway, which have previously announced they are ready to send tanks.

Germany on Wednesday approved the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, after weeks of pressure from Kiev and many allies.

Berlin will provide a company of 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from the Bundeswehr stocks and is also granting approval for other European countries to send tanks from their own stocks to Ukraine, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.

Following intense pressure from its allies, Germany appears to be inching toward approving deliveries of high-tech Leopard 2 main battle tanks that Ukraine and its biggest Western backers hope will boost Kyiv's fight against Russian invaders.

Asked in an interview with French television LCI what would happen if Poland sent its Leopard 2 tanks without Germany's approval, Baerbock answered: "For now, that question has not been asked, but if they asked us, we would not stand in their way."

The German government will not object if Poland decides to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, Germany's top diplomat said on Jan. 22, indicating movement on supplying weapons that Kiev has described as essential to its ability to fend off an intensified Russian offensive.

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

A group of 11 NATO countries pledged new military aid to Ukraine

A group of 11 NATO countries, including Britain and Poland, pledged new military aid to support Ukraine's war with Russia on Thursday, a day before a key arms meeting for Kyiv scheduled for Friday in Germany.

"When a new defense minister is appointed, that will be the first issue that needs to be decided concretely," Habeck told German national radio "Deutschlandfunk" on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, reports Reuters.

Poland has decided to send German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

This was announced by the Polish President Andrzej Duda during a meeting of the Lublin Triangle in Lviv, in which representatives of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine take part, quoted by the Polish media RP.