January 24, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

US soldiers stand with an M1 Abrams tank in a wooded area during a multinational exercise in Hohenfels, Germany, in June 2022.

The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send approximately 30 US-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine and could make an announcement as soon as this week, according to two officials familiar with the deliberations.

The US will also send a small number of recovery vehicles, one of the officials said. Recovery vehicles are tracked vehicles used to assist in the repair of tanks on the battlefield or the removal from the battlefield for service and maintenance in a different location.

The timing around the actual delivery of the tanks is still unclear and it normally takes several months to train troops to use the tanks effectively, officials said. 

An announcement about the tanks could be part of an attempt to break a diplomatic logjam with Germany, which indicated to the US last week that it would not send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine unless the US also agreed to send its M1 Abrams tanks. 

Top national security officials in the administration have been actively considering steps they could take to convince Germany to send the Leopards. 

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Tuesday that she suspects that the matter of tanks “will be resolved relatively soon.”

Asked about what was happening on the provision of tanks — German Leopards or US Abrams — Sherman did not give a specific answer, but said, “I think you’ll see in the days ahead resolution of some of these issues.”

“This is hard for everybody. Each country as President Biden has said has to make its own decisions about what weapons it wants to provide,” Sherman said in remarks at the City Club of Cleveland in Ohio Tuesday. 

Some background: On Friday, at a meeting of Western defense leaders in Germany, the US and its allies failed to convince German officials to send the Leopards as part of Berlin’s next round of military assistance to Ukraine. But on Tuesday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, “We are preparing our decision, which will come very soon” on the tanks. 

Sky News Arabia was first to report the news that the US is considering sending the tanks.

The administration has never taken the possibility of shipping American tanks entirely off the table, but US officials said publicly last week that now is not the right time to send the 70-ton M1 Abrams tanks because they are costly and require a significant amount of training to operate. 

The tanks have instead repeatedly been floated as a long-term option — even as critics say the right time is now, as Ukraine braces for the possibility Russia will mobilize more troops and launch a new offensive. The UK has already announced it will send 12 of its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, crossing what had previously appeared to be a red line for the US and its European allies.

Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky has consistently asked Western allies for modern tanks as his country prepares braces for an expected major Russian counteroffensive in the spring. 

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.

The post has been updated with more details on the tanks.

John Kirby during a news conference at the White House in Washington, DC on Friday.

The decision to send US-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine will rely on an “iterative” process around what Ukraine’s needs are, what aid is appropriate for the US to send and technical considerations surrounding the operation and maintenance of the tanks, White House National Security Council Senior Coordinator for Communications John Kirby told CNN on Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, CNN reported that the Biden administration is finalizing plans to send tanks to Ukraine and could make an announcement as soon as this week, according to three US officials familiar with the deliberations. The timing around the actual delivery of the tanks is still unclear and it normally takes several months to train troops to use the tanks effectively, officials said.

Kirby acknowledged that the complexity of the Abrams systems could play a role in the US’ decision to share tanks with Ukraine. 

To date, the US has begun supplying refurbished Soviet-era T-72 tanks, but modern Western tanks are a generation ahead in terms of their ability to target enemy positions. Still, Kirby dismissed the idea that providing the newer systems might escalate tensions with Russia.

Germany has decided to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, according to German newspaper Der Spiegel. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made the decision after “months of debate,” according to the exclusive report.

Here are the latest headlines:

Leopard 2 tanks: Berlin has not yet formally notified Warsaw about the reported decision to allow Leopard 2 tanks to be sent to Ukraine, a Polish official told CNN Tuesday. Poland will ask for reimbursement from the European Union for any Leopard tanks sent to Ukraine, according to Poland’s prime minister. German parliament is set to debate the contentious Leopard tank issue Wednesday morning.

Abrams tanks: The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send US-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine and could make an announcement as soon as this week, according to three US officials familiar with the deliberations. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the United States “is regularly engaged in” conversations with allies and partners about military equipment for Ukraine, but would not confirm reports about sending Abrams tanks or that Germany will send Leopards. 

Russian shortages and inflation: Russian President Vladmir Putin said Tuesday that inspections have indicated a shortage of some drugs in Russian pharmacies as well as an increase in prices, according to state news agency TASS. Shops in Moscow have shuttered as businesses face the economic fall-out from massive Western sanctions in response to the war in Ukraine.

Wagner appeal: The head of the Wagner private military company appealed Tuesday to the Russian State Duma to issue protections for the volunteers and convicts who fight as Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine.

British volunteer deaths: British volunteers Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw were killed during a humanitarian evacuation mission in the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar, according to a statement from the Parry family released Tuesday by the UK foreign office. The families of both men had previously said the two had gone to Ukraine to work as humanitarian volunteers. CNN has seen no evidence they participated in hostilities in Ukraine.

Debunked accusations: No military equipment is being stored in the Ukrainian nuclear power plants inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi told European Parliament lawmakers on Tuesday. Grossi’s comments come a day after Russia again accused Ukraine of using nuclear power plant sites to store Western-supplied weapons.  

No military equipment is being stored in the Ukrainian nuclear power plants inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi told European Parliament lawmakers on Tuesday. His comments debunk previous accusations made by Russia.

Grossi’s comments come a day after Russia again accused Ukraine of using nuclear power plant sites to store Western-supplied weapons.  

On Monday, the Russian Foreign Intelligence (SVR) Director ​Sergey Naryshkin accused Ukraine in a statement of “stockpiling weapons and ammunition provided by the West on the territories of nuclear power plants.”

Regarding the situation on the ground in Ukraine, Grossi told European lawmakers that the possibility of increased military activity in the coming months “raises our degree of concern” about the potential impact on Ukraine’s nuclear infrastructure.

The situation in the recent days around Zaporizhzhia has been “pretty tense” with shelling in the vicinity of the Zaporizhzia nuclear site, Grossi added.

A Polish Leopard 2 during an international military exercise on January 27, 2022, in Bavaria, Hohenfels, Germany.

Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto welcomed reports Tuesday that the United States and Germany are planning to send battle tanks to Ukraine, telling CNN’s Isa Soares that it is “very good news.”

German news outlet Der Spiegel reported Tuesday that Germany is set to deliver its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, citing unnamed sources. CNN reached out to the German government for comment on Tuesday evening but has not received a response.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is finalizing plans to send US-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine and could make an announcement as soon as this week, according to three US officials familiar with the deliberations.

Haavisto noted that while there isn’t a “final confirmation” of the reported German decision yet, “there can be a connection” between both developments. Germany had indicated to the US last week that it would not send its Leopard tanks unless the US also agreed to send its Abrams tanks.

British volunteers Chris Parry, left, and Andrew Bagshaw.

British volunteers Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw have been killed during a humanitarian evacuation mission in the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar, according to a statement from the Parry family, which was released Tuesday by the UK foreign office. Bagshaw was a dual national of New Zealand.

“It is with great sadness we have to announce that our beloved Chrissy has been killed along with his colleague Andrew Bagshaw whilst attempting a humanitarian evacuation from Soledar, eastern Ukraine,” the Parry family statement said. “His selfless determination in helping the old, young and disadvantaged there has made us and his larger family extremely proud.”

“We never imagined we would be saying goodbye to Chris when he had such a full life ahead of him. He was a caring son, fantastic brother, a best friend to so many and a loving partner to Olga,” the statement added. 

“We feel so privileged that he chose our family to be part of,” the statement said, which was signed by family members Rob, Christine, and Katy Parry. 

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has requested privacy for the family at this time. 

More on this case: The families of both men had previously said the two had gone to Ukraine to work as humanitarian volunteers. CNN has seen no evidence they participated in hostilities in Ukraine.

On Jan. 9, Ukrainian police reported that they were searching for Bagshaw and Parry. Ukrainian police noted that the two Britons “left Kramatorsk for Soledar” — the scene of intense recent fighting — “and contact with them was lost,” CNN previously reported.

CNN’s Seb Shukla, Mick Krever, Anna Chernova and Eve Brennan contributed reporting to this post.

Incoming US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy met with Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday. 

“This was an opportunity for her to have a discussion with her counterpart here in DC,” he said at a press briefing.

Price said the two did not discuss “any form of a negotiated settlement over Russia’s brutal war with Ukraine.”

“She’s currently in the process of having consultations with desks and individuals here in Washington, and in this case, she had an opportunity to have a discussion with Ambassador Antonov,” he said.

Price said that Tracy is expected to depart for Moscow “where she will present her credentials in the coming days” and she is expected to be in place as the top US diplomat in Russia “later this month.”

He noted that the US Embassy in Moscow is “under duress because of the pressure and the limitations that the Kremlin has imposed on it,” but the US is also able to communicate with the Russian Embassy in the US. 

“There are open channels of communication. We use these channels to convey where we are on issues that are of the utmost priority to us,” including wrongfully detained American citizens and the costs of Russian escalation, Price said.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price answers questions from press during the daily press briefing at the State Department in Washington DC, on January 9.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the United States “is regularly engaged in” conversations with allies and partners about military equipment for Ukraine but would not confirm reports that the US is preparing to send Abrams tanks or that Germany will send Leopards. 

“We’re not going to get ahead of any potential announcements from other allies, other partners, we’re not going to preview anything else we may have to say,” Price said at a press briefing Tuesday. 

“We have not taken capabilities off the table,” he added.

The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine, three US officials familiar with the deliberations said Tuesday. An announcement could come as soon as this week, the officials said.

The timing around the actual delivery of the tanks is still unclear, and it normally takes several months to train troops to use the tanks effectively, officials said. 

Price noted that “just because we’re in the same public place doesn’t necessarily mean we haven’t made progress on any given issue.”

Berlin has not yet formally notified Warsaw about a decision to allow Leopard 2 tanks to be sent to Ukraine, a Polish official told CNN on Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, the German government press office confirmed receipt of a Polish request to export the German-made main battle tanks to Ukraine. 

Newspaper Der Spiegel reported Tuesday that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to deliver battle tanks to Ukraine after “months of debate.” It will be part of a larger effort for allies to send tanks to Ukraine, the report said.

CNN reached out to the German government for comment on Tuesday but has not received a response. 

Gen. Daniel Hokanson, the chief of the US National Guard, told reporters Tuesday that it is “pretty motivating” to see Ukrainian troops training with Guard members in Germany.

Ukrainian soldiers began training in Germany with US troops last week on combined arms training. A group of 90-100 troops also began training on the Patriot missile system at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Austrian soldiers drive a Leopard tank during a military exercise in Grafenwoehr, Germany, in 2017.

Germany is set to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, newspaper Der Spiegel reported on Tuesday evening, citing unnamed sources. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to deliver battle tanks to Ukraine after “months of debate,” according to the exclusive Der Spiegel report.

It will be part of a larger effort for allies to send tanks to Ukraine, the report added.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is finalizing plans to send US-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine and could make an announcement as soon as this week, according to three US officials familiar with the deliberations.

An announcement about the tanks could be part of an attempt to break a diplomatic logjam with Germany, which indicated to the US last week that it would not send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine unless the US also agreed to send its M1 Abrams tanks.

CNN reached out to the German government for comment on Tuesday evening but has not received a response. 

Meanwhile, German parliament is still due to debate the contentious issue of possibly sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine on Wednesday morning.

The German army has 320 Leopard 2 tanks in its possession but does not reveal how many would be battle-ready, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense previously told CNN.

A bipartisan group of United States senators who just returned from a visit to Ukraine urged President Joe Biden’s administration to send tanks to Kyiv in hopes of encouraging Germany and other allies to also send tanks.  

“The best tank for the fight is the German Leopard tank … [and] American tanks can be helpful in this regard. If we send some Abrams tanks, it will open the floodgates to more tanks coming from allies,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said at a news conference Tuesday. 

Graham said that despite some issues associated with the American Abrams tanks, sending them would still be an important signal. US officials said publicly last week that hesitations stemmed from the tanks being costly and requiring a significant amount of training to operate. 

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal added that “the Pentagon ought to come full board with those Abrams tanks, if that’s what is necessary for the Germans to give permission to our allies, to provide the Leopard 2 tanks, and for the Germans to provide those tanks themselves.”

The senators stressed that they believe the war is at an important point and that there is an urgent need for additional weapon support now. 

“I want to thank President Biden for saying that Ukraine will get everything it needs to win. … There is an urgency to now, time is not on our side,” Blumenthal said. 

CNN reported earlier that the Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the US-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine and could make an announcement as soon as this week, according to three US officials familiar with the deliberations.

The head of the Wagner private military company on Tuesday appealed to the Russian State Duma to issue protections for the volunteers and convicts who fight as Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine.

He said that it was necessary to ban publications “of a negative nature and any criticism of the participants of the special military operation, as well as information about their past offenses.”

“I ask you to urgently take measures about the introduction of article 280.5 ‘On discrediting participants in hostilities, volunteers, including former convicts’ to the Criminal Code,” he added.

Prigozhin said that Wagner fighters “courageously and honourably fulfill their duty to the Motherland, effectively completing military tasks, ensure the safety of the state and suffer combat losses.”

Prigohzin also brought up the issue of number of media outlets and bloggers “who openly discredit volunteers.”

“Such practices must be severely suppressed in order to consolidate our society in confronting Russia’s external threats,” he said.

The remains of a statue and other rubble lie in front of the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, Ukraine, in December.

Mariupol’s Azovstal plant is too badly damaged to be restored to a functioning state, a Russian official tasked with government construction projects said Tuesday, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.

“Definitely no one will restore Azovstal, because to do it on the scale of that Soviet enterprise, as it was before, this is impossible and unprofitable. It was too badly destroyed during the hostilities,” said Yulia Maksimova, head of state-owned company Roskapstroy.

According to Maksimova, the region’s economy will be “partially revised” and “new directions will be developed.”

Remember: The Azovstal plant was the site last spring of a longstanding siege of Ukrainian forces by the Russian military, hoping to complete their capture of the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Separately, the new Russian-appointed mayor of Mariupol, Oleg Morgun, on Tuesday announced plans to restore the Azov Shipyard, which is the largest enterprise in the Sea of Azov, specializing in ship repair and shipbuilding.

“There is an intention to restore the Mariupol shipyard, for it to work,” Morgun said on state TV Russia 24.

According to Morgun, there are plans to also restore the work of the Ilyich metallurgical plant as there is “interest from investors” from other regions of Russia who also want to open new production facilities in the city.

The German parliament will debate the contentious issue of possibly sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine on Wednesday. 

The opposition parties Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) have requested the debate, arguing they want to “end the Leopard-blockade of the federal government.” The opposition parties say, according to the parliamentary website, that the German government “must fear losing the trust of its allies.”

The debate will start at 9.05 a.m. ET Wednesday.

Some context: Poland has formally asked Germany for permission to transfer Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Germany has so far resisted calls from Poland, the US and a handful of other NATO countries to transfer the tanks into Ukraine, or authorize other countries to send some of their Leopards to Kyiv.

However, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said earlier that the country will make a decision on the tanks “very soon.”

The European Commission on Tuesday welcomed developments in Ukraine suggesting the country is taking corruption seriously, a spokesperson said Tuesday.

European Commission spokesperson Ana Pisonero said that she could not comment on ongoing criminal matters, but said “we do welcome of course the fact that the Ukrainian authorities are taking these issues seriously.”

Ukraine was granted EU candidate status in June 2022.

Some more context: A number of senior Ukrainian officials have resigned or been fired by President Volodymyr Zelensky in the biggest shakeup of the government since the war began.

The shakeup comes amid a growing corruption scandal linked to the procurement of wartime supplies.

The recent changes to “personnel” within Ukraine’s government prove that Zelensky “sees and hears society,” according to a presidential adviser.

Two Leopard 2 A7V battle tanks on the road in Bad Frankenhausen, Germany, on September 15, 2021.

The German army has 320 Leopard 2 tanks in its possession, but it has not revealed how many would be battle ready, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense told CNN.

Those Leopard 2s — all in the A5, A6 and A7 series, are in various stages of condition, state of repair and readiness to be deployed, the spokesperson explained. 

The German army no longer has Leopard 1s in its possession, which is an older series of the main battle tank line, she said. Likewise, it does not have older Leopard 2 models like the A4, in stock. 

Separately, the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall said last week it had 139 Leopards in stock, but of those only 29 Leopard 2s would be combat-ready for delivery in the spring of this year. Those 29 have already been theoretically pledged to third countries as part of a tank swap.

The rest of the stock needed to be prepared over a longer period of time, according to the company.

A Rheinmetall spokesperson on Tuesday told CNN that of the rest of the stock — 88 Leopard 1 tanks — a few could be deliverable in about nine months, and the rest in a year. 

Another German weapons manufacturer, FFG, has 99 Leopards in its depot, but only the older Leopard 1 range, a spokesperson for the company tells CNN. 

Even if a tank is ready and repaired, it needs munition and spare parts to be deployable. 

Some context: Poland has formally asked Germany for permission to transfer Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Germany has so far resisted calls from Poland, the US and a handful of other NATO countries to transfer the tanks into Ukraine, or authorize other countries to send some of their Leopards to Kyiv.

However, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said earlier that the country will make a decision on the tanks “very soon.”

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, claimed Tuesday that Moscow’s “adversaries” monitoring arms production in the country would be disappointed because it has “quite enough of everything,” according to state news agency TASS. 

Medvedev made the comments during a visit to the Kalashnikov plant in the city of Izhevsk, where he held a meeting focusing on the production of essential weapons and military vehicles, according to TASS. 

“And our adversaries are watching as well, as they claim from time to time that we [lack] either this or that, that we have only enough missiles for only a couple more strikes, or something else like that. So, I would like to disappoint them — we have quite enough of everything,” he said, according to TASS. 

Russian President Vladmir Putin said Tuesday that inspections have indicated a shortage of some drugs in Russian pharmacies as well as an increase in prices, according to state news agency TASS.

“The fact is that, firstly, our prices have grown lately and there has been a certain shortage of some medicines, despite the fact that we have seen an increase in the production of pharmaceutical products,” Putin said during a virtual meeting with members of the government.

“In the first three quarters of last year it was about 22% up, with domestically manufactured drugs accounting for 60% of our market,” Putin said, according to TASS.  

“Nevertheless, there is a shortage of certain drugs, and their prices have risen,” he added. 

Some context: Shops in Moscow have shuttered as businesses face the economic fall-out from massive Western sanctions in response to the war in Ukraine. While the shelves in most stores remain well stocked, Western products are becoming increasingly scarce and very expensive, further driving prices that are already hammering many Russian households.