January 23, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Russia has sent tens of thousands of new troops to reinforce the front lines in Ukraine over the last few months, a senior US military official said Monday.

The troops have made little difference in the conflict, the official said, arriving on the front lines “ill-equipped, ill-trained” and “rushed to the battlefield.”

Russia has sent the troops in as replacements or reinforcements for existing units instead of newly organized and cohesive units. The troops began arriving on the battlefield following Russia’s stated mobilization of 300,000 new personnel in October, the official later said.

On Friday, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley said Russia had suffered “significantly well over 100,000 [casualties] now,” including killed in action and wounded in action. 

A few kilometers from the Belarus border, Ukrainian forces are training for what they expect to be a brutal spring.

Aging T-72 tanks – some twice the age of their crews – fire off rounds into the mist, while ground troops practice storming abandoned buildings. Some of the training takes place in the eerily quiet town of Pripyat, deserted since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

As the troops are put through their paces, Lt. Gen. Serhiy Naiev takes delivery of a dozen pick-up trucks armed with heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns, a crowd-funded initiative to help Ukraine repel Iranian-made Shahed drones, which have caused so much damage to Ukraine’s power infrastructure.

But Naiev, a stocky and affable commander, believes the next phase of this war will be about tanks. And that means not his ancient T-72s but more modern machines such as German Leopard 2s and British Challengers. Ukrainian officials say they need several hundred main battle tanks – not only to defend their present positions but also to take the fight to the enemy in the coming months.

Chief among their requests is the Leopard 2, which is relatively easy to maintain and operate, and in service with many NATO nations. Both the military and political leadership in Ukraine were hoping that the Ramstein meeting of Ukraine’s partners on Friday would greenlight their delivery, but Germany held back.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, speaking after the meeting, said he and German counterpart Boris Pistorius “had a frank discussion on Leopard 2s … to be continued.”

Read more about how Kyiv's forces are preparing here.

The past 12 months has forced European leaders to seriously rethink their approach to national security.

If Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has confirmed one thing, it’s that peace on the continent cannot be taken for granted. The status quo – decades of low spending and defense not being a policy priority – cannot continue.

This is especially true in Germany, which has for years has spent far less on its military than many of its Western allies but is now reconsidering its approach to defense at home and abroad.

Days after the invasion began last February, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered a head-turning speech to parliament in which he committed to spending 100 billion euros ($108 billion) to modernize Germany’s military capacity.

He also vowed that Germany would lift its defense spending to 2% of GDP – meeting a target set by NATO that it had missed for years – and end its deep reliance on Russian energy, particularly gas.

However, nearly a year on, critics say Scholz’s vision has failed to become reality. And Germany has been accused of dragging its feet when it comes to sending its more powerful weapons to Ukraine.

The criticism has grown in recent days as US and European leaders have piled pressure on Berlin to send German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, or at least allow other countries to do so.

Experts estimate there are around 2,000 Leopard tanks in use by 13 countries across Europe, and they are increasingly being seen as vital to Ukraine’s war effort as the conflict grinds into a second year. But Berlin must grant these nations approval to re-export German-made tanks to Ukraine, and it has so far resisted calls to do so.

Scholz has insisted that any such plan would need to be fully coordinated with the whole of the Western alliance, and German officials have indicated they won’t approve the transfer of Leopards unless the US also agrees to send some of its tanks to Kyiv.

On Friday, a key meeting of Western allies in Germany broke up without a wider agreement on sending tanks to Ukraine, after the country’s new defense minister Boris Pistorius said no decision had yet been made by his government.

Pistorius rebuffed claims that Germany has been “standing in the way” of a “united coalition” of countries in favor of the plan. “There are good reasons for the delivery and there are good reasons against it … all the pros and cons have to be weighed very carefully, and that assessment is explicitly shared by many allies,” he added.

Germany’s decision to dig in on sending tanks will likely go down badly with its allies, both in the immediate and long-term.

Read the full analysis here.

John Kirby, US national security council coordinator for strategic communications, on Monday downplayed the notion that Germany’s indecision on providing advanced military tanks to Ukraine is dividing NATO.

Some Western allies continue to pressure Germany to authorize the delivery of its modern Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine.

No decisions have been made “one way or another,” Kirby told CNN.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said earlier on Monday that a decision would be taken “soon,” as EU Foreign Ministers meet in Brussels for talks on Monday. 

Kirby affirmed that “NATO has never been more staunchly united than it has been over the last year with this war in Ukraine,” but acknowledged the alliance is “not going to ever agree on every single aspect of every decision”. 

“What’s really important to remember is that these are national decisions, they’re sovereign decisions,” he said. 

“I certainly can't speak for the Germans on what’s going into their calculus about the Leopard tanks. The Leopards are very good and there [are] a lot of them on the European continent, and certainly, they could be effective on the battlefield. But again, what Germany does, they’ve got to decide," Kirby added. “They have to work through this in a sovereign way.”

The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday outlined the bloc's plans to continue supporting Ukraine, saying it reached an agreement to provide an additional 500 million euros ($543.03 million) and additional military training assistance worth 45 million euros ($48.87 billion), dedicated to a military training mission for Ukrainian forces. 

That brings the EU's total amount of military support for Ukraine, coming via the European Union's intergovernmental fund, to 3.6 billion euros ($3.9 billion), Borrell told reporters in Brussels on Monday. 

Borrell added that the total figure of the bloc's support to Ukraine, including military, financial, economic and humanitarian aid, now stands at 49 billion euros ($53.21 billion). 

"Russia continues its systematic barbaric attacks on Ukrainian cities, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructures," Borrell said. "We have not seen any genuine willingness from Russia regarding a fair and sustainable peace." 

Correction: This story has been updated to show that the total figure of EU support for Ukraine is $53.21 billion.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, dismissed the Russian threat that Ukraine “will pay” if Germany sends tanks, saying they’ve heard that threat before.

“The actions of the Russians are inexplicably aggressive, and I think that they should totally expect that we would answer with these kinds of weapons systems," the Pennsylvania Democrat said in an interview with CNN.

Asked what is driving the United States’ hesitancy to send its tanks – which Germany demanded in exchange for it doing the same – Houlahan said, “It really does sound as though there is some work to be done in terms of the conversations between those allies, both the United States and Germany.”

She added that she’s “heartened” by House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul, a Texan Republican, who said the United States must answer Ukraine’s call for everything it needs, and she echoed McCaul’s call for greater education of Congress, the administration, and the Department of Defense “to make it possible for us to be able to do that.” 

“And then I believe that Germany will follow along or follow suit. That has been sort of the pattern since the beginning of the war,” she said.

Houlahan praised McCaul’s leadership on the House Foreign Affairs committee and said she was hopeful, now that a Republican was chair of the panel and holds the majority in the House, that Republicans “will start really listening to the chairman, as he articulates, I think very, very well, what’s at stake here."

Poland is "more than determined" to send Western battle tanks to Ukraine whether or not other countries join in the scheme, the Polish foreign minister said in Brussels on Monday evening.

Rau had been asked whether Poland would send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and whether there are "any other states in the EU” that would join Poland.

The foreign minister said that “regardless of the decisions of other countries, we are more than determined, as we promised the Ukrainian side, to send the tanks.”

That appeared to contradict a statement earlier Monday by Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, who said that a “condition” for Poland was the assembly of a “small coalition” of states willing to send battle tanks to Ukraine.

Rau said Monday that it “remains to be determined” whether other countries will join Poland in sending Western battle tanks to Ukraine, and that “there are negotiations underway.”

What Germany is saying: A spokesperson for the German government, Steffen Hebestreit, told journalists Monday that Germany had not received a request from Poland or any other country for permission to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine – as would be required, because it is German-manufactured.

When asked whether Poland would seek such permission, Rau said “we will do it, certainly.”

When asked for his opinion on the German government’s approach to the issue, the Polish foreign minister said: “The German reactions could be more determined and more dynamic.”

CNN's Jo Shelley in London, Claudia Otto and Inke Kappeler in Berlin contributed reporting to this post.

Pressure is growing on Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, with Kyiv stepping up its pleas and a spat brewing between Berlin and some of its NATO allies.

The German-made Leopard 2 tanks are seen as a vital, modern military vehicle that would bolster Kyiv’s forces as the war with Russia approaches the one-year mark.

On Friday, Germany failed to reach an agreement with its key Western partners on sending the vehicles, ahead of a potential Russian spring offensive in Ukraine.

But countries are continuing to press the issue this week, while Poland is seeking to build its own coalition to help bolster Ukraine’s military with all-important Leopards.

Here’s what you need to know about the Leopard 2 tanks — and why they’re so important to the war in Ukraine:

 CNN's Mick Krever contributed reporting to this post.

A Tanzanian national has died while fighting with the mercenary group Wagner in Ukraine, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti has reported. 

RIA Novosti cited a fellow fighter as saying that 31-year-old Nemes Tarimo had come to Russia to study at the Russian Technological University MIREA. He had later been jailed. “While serving in the colony, he wished to volunteer in the special operation zone,” the report, published on Wednesday, said. 

Last Monday, Russian media outlet RIA FAN, part of a media holdings company run by Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, published what it said was video of a memorial service for Tarimo in Goryachiy Klyuch, a town in the Krasnodar region of Russia. 

CNN cannot independently verify the video’s authenticity. 

The accompanying article on RIA FAN said that Tarimo “fought near Bakhmut as part of the Wagner PMC and died while performing a combat mission” on Oct. 24.

Tarimo’s cousin, Rehema Makrene Kigoga, told CNN that he had got a scholarship to study abroad. She confirmed that he had died but said the family had “no idea that he was ever arrested” and did not know whether or not he had fought in Ukraine. 

Some context: The private military contractor has heavily recruited from Russian prisons over the last nine months. Previously it has deployed contingents to Syria and several African countries. 

The founder and head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has visited Wagner fighters on the front line and met former convicts who have completed their six-month tour of duty with Wagner. Prigozhin had promised them that in return for fighting they would be pardoned and be able to return home, rather than to prison.

CNN's Mariya Knight contributed reporting to this post.