Conflict and Peace

Poland has officially asked Germany for permission to send some of its German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, the Polish Defence Minister announced in a tweet on Tuesday morning (24 January). In the tweet, Mariusz Blaszczak wrote: "The Germans have already received our request for consent to the transfer of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. I also appeal to the German side to join the coalition of countries supporting Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks. This is our common cause because it is about the security of the whole of Europe!'' Germany has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks to either supply Ukraine with its Leopard 2 tanks, or at least approve other countries' re-export of them. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had said on Sunday (22 January) in an interview with French television that she would not "stand in the way" of Poland if it wanted to sent its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. On his part, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday morning that Berlin had yet to decide on the delivery of combat tanks to Ukraine, saying that "There is no news that I can deliver at this point. I have said that shortly a decision will be made and I can only assume that will be the case."

No decision has been reached on whether Berlin will approve the supply of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine at Ramstein Air Force base summit of global defence leaders in Germany on Friday (20 January). The BBC reports that the Polish Defence Minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, remains optimistic that efforts to supply the tanks would be successful, saying, "Defence ministers of 15 countries met on the sidelines of today's conference and we talked about this topic...I am convinced that coalition building will end in success." Both leading up to and during the summit on Friday, numerous countries had made separate pledges of military equipment to Ukraine. The Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lativa, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, the UK, Sweden, Finland, Germany and the United States are among those to have pledged further military aid to Ukraine in the past week.

The President of the European Council Charles Michel is in Kyiv, announcing his arrival on Twitter on Thursday morning (19 January). In a video, he said: "I am on my way to Kyiv because I will have the occasion to meet again with the President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Prime Minister, and members of parliament. And we know that the Ukrainians are resisting, and they are fighting. They are fighting for their land, they are fighting for the future, and for the future of their children. We all know they are also fighting for our common European values and principles. And also for the promise of European Union peace and prosperity. They need and deserve our support, and that is why we will discuss with President Zelensky and his team what are the measures we can develop in order to make sure they are stronger and more powerful." In a speech to the European Parliament yesterday (18 January), President Michel explicitly expressed his support for supplying Ukraine with tanks, saying: "The time is now. They urgently need more equipment and I'm personally in favour of supplying tanks to Ukraine."

While Azerbaijan gets most of the blame for the ongoing crisis in the “Lachin Corridor,” the international community does not see the elephant in the room: Armenia’s shipment of weapons and illegal mining operations through this corridor intended for civilian use, writes Nurlan Mustafayev in this op-ed for commonspace.eu

Fourteen people have been killed, including Ukraine's interior affairs minister, after a helicopter crashed beside a nursery in an eastern suburb of the capital Kyiv. One child is among the dead. The interior minister, Denys Monastyrsky, was with eight others in the helicopter. His first deputy minister and the state secretary also died, officials said, when the helicopter came down in the suburb of Brovary. The 42-year-old interior minister was a prominent member of President Volodymy Zelensky's cabinet and played a key role in updating the public on casualties caused by Russian missile strikes since Ukraine was invaded in February 2022. National police chief Ihor Klymenko wrote on Facebook that the helicopter belonged to Ukraine's state emergency service. Monastyrsky is the highest profile Ukrainian casualty since Russia's war began, although there is no indication that the crash was anything more than an accident. The deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said the minister had been en route to a war "hot spot" when his helicopter went down.

Some 50 women have been abducted by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, local officials say. Residents in Arbinda said two groups of women were taken as they were out gathering leaves and wild fruits because of a severe food shortage. A small number managed to escape and raise the alarm. The abductions happened on Thursday and Friday, but news has just emerged, as much of the area has been blockaded by Islamist militants. Arbinda in the Sahel region has been hit hard by the jihadist insurgency. Roads in and out have been blocked by the jihadists, there is severe hunger as food supplies are limited, and the humanitarian situation is desperate. Last month, protesters in Arbinda broke into warehouses to get food and supplies. Burkina Faso as a whole has been hit by a decade-long insurgency that has displaced nearly two million people. The military seized power last January, promising an end to attacks, but the violence still rages.