Ukraine is preparing for the next meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group at the Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy said his government was expecting "strong decisions" from defence leaders of NATO and other countries meeting on Friday to discuss boosting Ukraine's ability to confront Russian forces with modern battle tanks, Reuters reported. 

Germany will greenlight the delivery of German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine if the United States agrees to send its Abrams tanks. The concern is how difficult it is to operate and maintain the Abrams tank and whether the 70-ton tank would work for Ukrainian forces. “The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment. It’s expensive. It’s hard to train on. It has a jet engine”, said Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser. The German Leopard 2 battle tanks, the British Challenger 2 battle tank, and the American fighting vehicles Stryker and Bradley could be used during Ukraine's counter-offensive at the end of the winter or in spring. The participants at the Ramstein meeting are also expected to consider the possibility of re-exporting German tanks from other countries. A spokesman for Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Berlin had not yet received a formal request to re-export German-made tanks.

Within the framework of the meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group at the US Ramstein Air Base, Bulgaria’s Minister of Defence Dimitar Stoyanov will talk with representatives of Sweden and France to speed up the procedures for offering second-hand fighter jets.

Meanwhile, Russian forces are preparing for Ukraine’s counter-offensive and are bolstering defences with modern shelters, dugouts, etc.