عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

US, German Defense Ministers Meet as Differences Emerge over Tanks for Ukraine

A Marder armored infantry fighting vehicle of the German army Bundeswehr is pictured at Rukla military base, Lithuania April 22, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ratz
A Marder armored infantry fighting vehicle of the German army Bundeswehr is pictured at Rukla military base, Lithuania April 22, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ratz
TT
TT

US, German Defense Ministers Meet as Differences Emerge over Tanks for Ukraine

A Marder armored infantry fighting vehicle of the German army Bundeswehr is pictured at Rukla military base, Lithuania April 22, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ratz
A Marder armored infantry fighting vehicle of the German army Bundeswehr is pictured at Rukla military base, Lithuania April 22, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ratz

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will press Germany's new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Thursday to allow for the transfer of German-made tanks to Ukraine, US officials said, as the two countries remained at loggerheads over the issue.

Germany will allow German-made tanks to be sent to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia if the United States agrees to send its own tanks, a German government source told Reuters.

But US officials publicly and privately insist that Washington has no plans to send US made tanks to Ukraine for now, arguing that they would be too difficult for Kyiv to maintain and would require a huge logistical effort to simply run.

"The secretary (of defense) will be pressing the Germans on this," one senior US defense official said. The US official said supplying Ukraine with German-made Leopard tanks made the most sense as a number of countries already had them and were willing to transfer them quickly.

The United States has committed roughly $24 billion to help Ukraine to defend itself against Russian forces.

A second US official said President Joe Biden's administration was set to approve a new aid package to Ukraine, worth more than $2 billion.

The package, which could be announced as early as Friday during a meeting of defense leaders at an airbase in Germany, would likely include Stryker armored vehicles for Kyiv, but not M1 Abrams tanks.

The United States aims to break the dynamic of grinding warfare and near-frozen front lines in Ukraine with newly announced military capabilities that it hopes will breath fresh momentum into Kyiv's battle against Russian forces, a senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday.

But Colin Kahl, the Pentagon's top policy adviser, said the Pentagon still wasn't prepared to meet Kyiv's calls for gas-guzzling M1 Abrams main battle tanks.

Some Eastern European officials have publicly called on Germany to allow the transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday urged Germany to send Ukraine the weaponry it needed to take the fight to invading Russian soldiers, lacing a speech in Berlin with implicit criticisms of Scholz’s government.

Britain has said that it would send 14 Challenger 2 tanks, its main battle tanks, along with additional artillery support to Ukraine, a step officials hope will open the door for Germany to make similar moves.

Some US officials remain hopeful that they can convince Germany to allow the transfer of third party tanks to Ukraine.

"We are very optimistic that we will make progress on this requirement by the end of the week," a second US official said.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

8 Thai Monks Killed after Boy Drives Truck into Procession

(FILES) In this photograph taken on January 10, 2024, Buddhist monks stand outside a shop at a market area in Bhutan's capital Thimphu. (Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP)
(FILES) In this photograph taken on January 10, 2024, Buddhist monks stand outside a shop at a market area in Bhutan's capital Thimphu. (Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP)
TT
TT

8 Thai Monks Killed after Boy Drives Truck into Procession

(FILES) In this photograph taken on January 10, 2024, Buddhist monks stand outside a shop at a market area in Bhutan's capital Thimphu. (Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP)
(FILES) In this photograph taken on January 10, 2024, Buddhist monks stand outside a shop at a market area in Bhutan's capital Thimphu. (Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP)

An 11-year-old drove his parents' truck into a Buddhist procession in Thailand on Thursday, killing eight monks and injuring 10 others, police said.

The group of 35 monks and five lay followers were walking along a roadside in the northeastern Mukdahan province during a pilgrimage when the incident occurred.

"The suspect is a child. The vehicle has been taken for forensic examination to determine the cause," Police Major General Pairoj Thaiphutsa, commander of the Mukdahan Provincial Police, told reporters.

"We've asked the child's parents to come in so we can determine who is responsible for the child's care, so we can go on with legal process," he added.

Police said the boy had taken his parents' pickup truck without permission before losing control of the vehicle and crashing into the monks.

Five monks died at the scene and three more later died in hospital, while more than 10 others are being treated.

Prayut Ruanthongkam, chief of Mukdahan City Police, told AFP by telephone that the child was a boy aged 11.

Emergency medical and rescue teams were deployed to the scene and the injured were taken to Mukdahan Hospital.

Mukdahan provincial governor Worayan Bunnarat said the case should serve as a wider warning on road safety.

"We've been very strict on road safety in recent years. This case should be a lesson not just for our province, but for the public in general when it comes to preventing road accidents," he said.

"I think everyone involved, especially parents, needs to help, because no one wants something like this to happen."

World

Russia Bombards Kyiv in Major Strike, at Least 13 People Killed

Ukrainian experts work at the site of a Russian glide bomb strike in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 29 June 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian experts work at the site of a Russian glide bomb strike in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 29 June 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
TT
TT

Russia Bombards Kyiv in Major Strike, at Least 13 People Killed

Ukrainian experts work at the site of a Russian glide bomb strike in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 29 June 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian experts work at the site of a Russian glide bomb strike in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 29 June 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine's capital Kyiv in the early hours on Thursday, blasting apart residential buildings, killing at least 13 people and wounding scores, Reuters reported.

Multiple explosions shook buildings and reverberated across the capital throughout the night as thousands of residents rushed to bomb shelters and underground metro stations. It was the second-deadliest Russian attack on Kyiv so far this year. "This night, Russia once again carried out a cynical, large-scale attack on Ukraine," Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on the Telegram app. "The enemy launched dozens of ballistic missiles. Kyiv was hit the hardest."

"As of now, 13 people are known to have been killed."

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had cut short a visit to Dublin on Wednesday night and warned Ukrainians about the upcoming strike.

Russia launched 74 missiles and 496 drones during the attack, the Ukrainian air force said. Air defense units downed most of those but 25 ballistic missiles ‌and 12 drones struck ‌33 locations.

The Russian Defense Ministry, in a Telegram post, said its "massive attack" using long-range, high-precision air-, ‌land-, sea-launched ⁠weapons and drones ⁠hit military and energy facilities, as well as airports in Kyiv and other locations.

The ministry said it was a retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian civil infrastructure. Russia downed 327 drones overnight, the ministry said.

For its part, the Ukrainian General Staff said it had hit an oil refinery in the town of Kstovo in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region overnight. Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin said one person was killed and four people wounded in a drone strike that damaged an industrial facility.

DAY OF MOURNING ANNOUNCED IN KYIV

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha reiterated Kyiv's urgent plea for Ukraine's allies to supply more air defenses, saying that the capital had "suffered a night of horror".

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced a day of mourning in Kyiv for Friday. He ⁠said that damage was recorded across the entire city of about 3 million people, with some ‌buildings smashed.

Emergency services were working through the rubble of what used to be a nine-storey building ‌on the left bank of the Dnipro River that bisects the city as the sun rose and fires flared up around it. City officials said that about 90 ‌people, including children, paramedics and drivers at an ambulance station, were wounded and that some people were still trapped inside damaged residential buildings.

"Our ‌house is on fire. The attack is still going on. Oleg was pulling our neighbor out of the burning house, while I was phoning all the emergency services during the explosions," Iryna Plekhova, a Kyiv resident, said on Facebook, posting a picture of a half-destroyed apartment building with no windows.

"We do not have an apartment anymore."

Pictures posted online showed a blaze at the top of a building on the central Shevchenko Boulevard, while elsewhere in the city, windows blew ‌out and cars were destroyed.

People crowded into underground stations carrying children, belongings, tents and pets as air raid alerts blared across the city.

Ukraine's neighbor Poland, a NATO and European Union member, briefly scrambled fighter ⁠jets as a preventive measure. Finland ⁠also briefly issued a temporary aviation restriction zone in the eastern Gulf of Finland before lifting it later, its defense forces said on X.

MORE PRESSURE ON RUSSIA NEEDED

After years in which Ukraine bore the brunt of relentless long-range attacks from Russia, Kyiv has intensified its own strikes deeper into Russian territory in recent months, mainly hitting energy targets. That has triggered a fuel crisis in Russia, forcing the world's third-biggest oil producer to import gasoline from as far away as India.

Russia has responded with a stepped-up air campaign against Ukrainian cities, last month hitting a thousand-year-old Kyiv cathedral foundational to the Orthodox faith in both countries.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, said only sustained military support for Ukraine and increased pressure on Moscow could help stop Russian attacks.

"Today, I will propose to sanction more entities supporting Russia’s military-industrial complex in response to the strikes," she said in a post on X. "The more Moscow attacks civilians, the more sanctions must be imposed."

Zelenskiy has proposed talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the more than four-year-old war, which the Kremlin leader has rejected.

Russia has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians in strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow denies intentionally attacking civilians but says attacks on what it describes as civil infrastructure are legitimate because they hurt Ukraine's ability to wage war. Kyiv has also launched attacks on Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine on a far smaller scale.

World

Iran Chief Negotiator Calls to Avenge Khamenei Death with Massive Funeral Turnout

FILED - 12 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa
FILED - 12 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa
TT
TT

Iran Chief Negotiator Calls to Avenge Khamenei Death with Massive Funeral Turnout

FILED - 12 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa
FILED - 12 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa

Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf called on Thursday for massive turnout at Ali Khamenei's funeral to avenge the supreme leader's death in US-Israeli strikes at the start of the war.

"I invite all the Iranian people... to write a glorious page in the history of Islamic Iran through your presence" at the funeral ceremonies starting Saturday, Ghalibaf said in a statement, adding: "The nation's call for vengeance must ring in the ears of the whole world."