Weapons

• The United States and Germany announced plans to send Ukraine dozens of modern tanks, hailed by Kyiv as a potential turning point in its battle to repel Russia’s invasion but denounced by Moscow as an “extremely dangerous” step.
• The key to providing tanks was speed and sufficient numbers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He said he has also spoken to NATO top brass and called for supplies of long-range missiles and high-end aircraft to add to the commitment of tanks by the US and Germany.
• Germany’s decision paves the way for other countries such as Poland, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway to supply some of their Leopard tanks to Ukraine, going some way towards delivering the hundreds of tanks that Ukraine says it needs.
• It may take many months for the powerful US tanks that President Joe Biden agreed to send to Ukraine to reach their destination, the White House said.
• Russia reacted with fury to Germany’s decision to approve the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks, saying Berlin was abandoning its “historical responsibility to Russia” arising from Nazi crimes in World War II.

Fighting

• The head of the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said units of the Wagner militia were advancing in the town of Bakhmut and a senior Ukrainian official said fighting there and in a second town was growing fiercer.
• Ukraine acknowledged its forces had withdrawn from Soledar, a salt-mining town near Bakhmut that Russia said it captured more than a week ago, its biggest gain for more than six months.

Diplomacy

• The European Court of Human Rights allowed cases brought against Russia by Ukraine and the Netherlands over allegations of human rights violations in the breakaway Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, and the shooting down of flight MH-17.
• The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO designated the historic centre of Odesa, on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, a World Heritage in Danger site.
• Zelenskyy urged a senior UN official to help find a way to resolve what Ukrainian authorities decry as a serious consequence of 11 months of the war – the deportation to Russia of thousands of adults and children.