“There is a positive dynamic, everything is developing according to plans,” Putin said, answering a question from a journalist on Soledar, adding “I hope that our fighters will please us more than once again.” Putin’s upbeat assessment of the war came on Sunday after Moscow claimed victory in the bitter fighting over in the Donbas town of Soledar, which Kyiv has denied. Civilian infrastructure, including electricity sites, were again damaged and power outages reported. Other Ukrainian cities hit on Saturday included Odesa in the south, Kharkiv in the east, Lviv in the west and the capital, Kyiv. City officials said on Sunday afternoon that at least 72 people were wounded, including 13 children, and 43 people were reported missing. Rescue workers in the city of Dnipro continued to search through the rubble of a nine-storey apartment block destroyed by a Russian missile strike on Saturday, killing at least 25 people and leaving about 400 homeless. The warning came as Russian rocket attacks across Ukraine ended a two-week lull in Moscow’s targeting of the country’s power infrastructure and urban centres, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, hailed a “positive dynamic” on the frontline. The question of whether countries such as Poland, Finland or Germany can spare Leopard tanks from their own reserves is likely to dominate the agenda at a meeting at the Ramstein airbase in south-western Germany on Friday. “The recent pledges for heavy warfare equipment are important – and I expect more in the near future,” Stoltenberg told Germany’s Handelsblatt daily. Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday Ukraine could expect more heavy weapons following Kyiv’s requests for the vehicles, artillery and missiles it says are key to defending itself. While Rheinmetall’s admission limits the options of Ukraine’s western allies, it does not entirely quash Kyiv’s hopes that the UK’s promise to deliver Challenger 2 tanks would encourage other European nations to swiftly follow suit. “The vehicles must be completely dismantled and rebuilt,” he added.
Getting the Leopard tanks ready for battle, however, would take several months and cost hundreds of millions of euros the company could not put up until the order was confirmed, Papperger said.
Rheinmetall, which manufactures the battle vehicle’s gun, has 22 Leopard 2 and 88 older Leopard 1 tanks in its stocks.
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