Ukraine weapons donors meet as Kyiv requests tanks

Dozens of countries allied with Ukraine will meet on Friday to coordinate arms supplies for Kyiv, which has ramped up its requests to be provided with tanks. Host Germany

faces growing pressure to allow its highly regarded Leopard tanks to be exported to Ukraine. The crunch talks come a day after the US and several European nations pledged

more equipment to help Ukraine fend off any further Russian offensives. The UK also offered 14 of its battle tanks recently - but Kyiv wants more. Ukraine's allies

faced a "simple choice" on Friday, an adviser to the defence minister remarked ahead of the summit. "Tanks for Ukraine are tanks for freedom," Yuriy Sak told BBC's Newsnight

programme. If these were not sent, other countries might one day "have to use them themselves" against Moscow, he warned. More than 50 countries are due to meet at Ramstein

Air Base in Germany's south-west. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces mounting pressure to donate Leopard 2 tanks, following the UK's recent donation of 14 of its own

Challenger battle tanks. As the nation of manufacture, Germany must also give its permission before other countries can commit to sending their own supplies of the

Leopard. The Polish prime minister said he was "moderately pessimistic" about getting Berlin's blessing - though a Lithuanian minister told the AFP news agency that "some

countries" would send the Leopards.