Sorry Kyiv. They Came, They Jawed, And They Left Without Giving What Was Pleaded For

Defense Sectary Austin urged all to dig deeper. But the only thing that came out was pocket change.

On Sunday, however, German’s top diplomat said the German government will not object if Poland decides to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine – a major change in posture. If so — and there have been conflicting statements from German officials in the past two weeks on the tank issue — it might the opening.

Ukraine’s supporters pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine during a meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday. International defense leaders discussed Ukraine’s urgent request for the Leopard 2 tanks, and the failure to work out an agreement overshadowed the new commitments.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that he had asked his defense minister to “work on” the idea of sending some of France’s Leclerc battle tanks to Ukraine.

And the Russian quote of the weekend: Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, and a former Russian place holder president, warned that “in case of a protracted conflict,” Russia could seek to form a military alliance with “the nations that are fed up with the Americans and a pack of their castrated dogs.”

Meanwhile Moscow’s forces are pushing towards two towns in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, where fighting intensified this week after several months of a stagnant front, Russian state media reported Sunday.

Russian forces continued limited counterattacks to regain lost positions along the Svatove-Kreminna line on January 22. They (technically) have been on the offensive th past few weeks and the Ukrainians on the defensive — to the posture Kyiv (or the Pentagon) desires. Russian milbloggers on January 22 continued to discuss the potential of a pending major Russian or Ukrainian offensive and speculated as to which areas present the highest priority targets.