A top Ukrainian presidential aide said Saturday : Ukrainians and its Western allies are engaged in fast-track talks about the possibility of equipping the country with long-range missiles and military aircraft, and that Ukraine s supporters in the West understand how the war is developing and the need to provide planes capable of providing cover for the armoured fighting vehicles that the United States and Germany pledged at the beginning of the month.
In remarks to the online video channel Freedom, Podolyak said that some of Ukraine's Western partners maintain a conservative attitude to arms deliveries because of changes in Russia and North Korea's international architecture. Russia and North Korea accused the West of prolonging and taking a direct role in the war by sending Kyiv increasingly sophisticated weapons.
Podolyak said we must show our partners the real picture of this war, without naming specific countries. We must speak reasonably and tell them, this will reduce fatalities, this will reduce the burden on infrastructure. This will reduce security threats to the European continent and keep the war localized. The decision by the US and Germany to share advanced tanks with Ukraine along with the Bradley and Marder vehicles promised earlier in the day, led to criticism from the prime minister of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and European Union member Hungary.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that Western countries providing weapons and money to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia have drifted into active participants in the conflict. Orban has refused to send weapons to neighbouring Ukraine and tried to block EU funds earmarked for military aid.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said it would summon Hungary's ambassador to complain about Orban's remarks. A ministry spokeswoman, Oleg Nikolenko, said Orban told reporters that Ukraine was a no man's land and compared it to Afghanistan.
Such statements are completely unacceptable. Nikolenko said in a Facebook post that Budapest is on its course to deliberately destroy Ukrainian-Hungarian relations.
President Joe Biden's announcement that the US would send 31 M 1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine reversed months of arguments by Washington that they were too hard for Ukrainian troops to operate and maintain.
The US decision persuaded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who expressed concern about a unilateral action drawing Russia's wrath, to agree to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks from Germany's stocks and allow European countries with tanks to send some of theirs.