Ukraine Update…315 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine…Tanks for the Ukraine….

The Biden administration is expected to announce a new military package for Ukraine worth about $2.5 billion that is likely to include dozens of Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles, two people familiar with the decision told The Washington Post. The package will also include restocking of ammunition for howitzers and rocket artillery, as well as more mine-resistant vehicles, the people said.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

• Austin will convene a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he is to be joined by Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The meeting will include defense ministers and chiefs “from nearly 50 nations,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
• The latest U.S. military aid package for Ukraine could include nearly 100 Strykers, people familiar with the plan told The Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss it before a formal announcement. It would be the first time the Pentagon has supplied Ukrainian forces with the armored vehicles, which would boost their firepower and allow the swift movement of troops around the battlefield. Canada will send an additional 200 armored vehicles to Ukraine, its defense minister said.
• Russian officials have opened a criminal case against a U.S. national suspected of espionage. The individual was not identified by the Federal Security Service, or FSB, in its announcement of the case early Thursday. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it was not clear whether the U.S. national has been detained by Russian authorities.
• Ukraine’s security services opened a criminal investigation into the helicopter crash near a kindergarten that killed at least 14 people, including Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. One child was among the dead, and 25 people, including 11 children, were injured. Zelensky said the rescue operation lasted nine hours and involved hundreds of people.
• The Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement that it was probing a number of possible causes for the helicopter crash in Brovary, near Kyiv, including a violation of flight rules, a technical malfunction and sabotage. Monastyrsky was traveling to a “hot spot” on the front line when the helicopter crashed, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office. Ihor Klymenko, the head of the national police service, has been appointed as acting interior minister.

• Russian mercenaries claim to have captured the small village of Klishchiivka, located on the edge of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which for days has been the subject of a fierce Russian offensive. The Post was not able to immediately verify the claim. In an audio message posted online, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian oligarch behind the Wagner Group, said his fighters were slowly advancing and would take Bakhmut.
• Russian forces are continuing to shell near Soledar,Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said on Telegram. The situation around the salt mining town near Bakhmut — the site of recent intense fighting and competing claims of control — continues to be tense, he said.
• Russia might be considering deploying a few T-14 Armata battle tanks in Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said Thursday, citing imagery from late December of a training ground in southern Russia. The move is likely to be a “high-risk decision” for Russia because the tanks have been dogged by reports of manufacturing problems and pose an additional challenge for Russia’s logistics chain, the ministry said. It said any deployment of the relatively large, heavy tanks is likely to be mainly for “propaganda purposes” and that commanders “are unlikely to trust the vehicle in combat.”

• The Kremlin said there would be global consequences if Ukraine’s allies supply it with weapons that would allow its army to strike inside Russian territory. “That would mean that the conflict reaches a new qualitative level, which will not bode well for global and common European security,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday. Even the discussion in itself is “potentially extremely dangerous,” he said.
• Ukraine needs heavier and more modern weapons because Russia is preparing for the “long haul,” NATO officials said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he will emphasize that type of support at the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.
• Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Warsaw would go ahead and send the 14 Leopard 2 tanks it has pledged to Ukraine whether or not Germany consents. “Consent is secondary,” he said in an interview with Polsat news on his way back from Davos. “Either we will obtain this consent, or we will do the right thing ourselves.” Since the Leopard 2 is manufactured in Germany, Berlin’s permission is technically required for reexports.
• Germany no longer depends on Russian imports for its energy supply, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in an interview with the BBC. Lindner said the country has diversified its energy infrastructure since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. “Yes, of course, Germany is still dependent on energy imports, but today, not from Russian imports but from global markets,” he said…..

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image…Army Univ. Press