9th Ramstein Group Meeting To Be Held In February

Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted that the next meeting of the so-called Ramstein group (formally Ukraine Defence Contact Group) will take place in February.

• The contact group of nearly 50 nations has been set up to coordinate military support for Ukraine's defence against the ongoing Russian invasion. At its eight meeting last week, the coalition failed to agree on the supply of battle tanks that Kyiv said it needs to repel the expected fresh Russian offensive.
• Germany's reluctance to greenlight the transfer of tanks has been a key obstacle, with Defence Minister Boris Pistorious ordering a check of inventories before making a decision.
• Over the weekend, Spiegel reported that the Bundeswehr already has a detailed list of its tank stockpiles and could immediately donate at least 19 Leopard 2A5 battle tanks currently used as fake enemies in drills.
• In a separate report, Bild noted that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had a tense discussion of the matter with Chancellor Olaf Scholz's closest aide Wolfgang Schmidt last week, with Germany insisting that it would donate its tanks only if the U.S. follows suit.