and a police officer authority say the perpetrator, who was a former soldier, then killed himself. it happened in the town of sagar hbo east of the capital to be lazy. brazilian football player danny alvarez has been arrested in barcelona spain on sexual assault allegations. police say the alleged incident happened on new years eve in a nightclub in the coastal city alvarez will now go before a judge who will decide on the charges will right now. ukrainian officials and their western partners have been meeting at ramstein air bays here in germany. to discuss a major boost in military aid for ukraine, all eyes are on germany and whether berlin will greenlight deliveries of its modern leverage 2 tanks to ukraine. but the german defense minister is also stressing that no decision has been made. and that divisions over the issue still remain.

it's a meeting many he a say comes at a crucial moment with russia, regrouping and recruiting ukraine's allies feel they have to ramp up their support and fast. this is not a moment to slow down. it's a time to dig deeper, but ukrainian people are watching us. but kremlin is watching us in history is watching us. so we won't let up. and we want waiver in our determination to help ukraine defend itself from russia's imperial aggression. many of the countries present the hammerstein have already announced additional military 8. i'm at vehicles and ammunition for example. but the main focus of today's conference is on what is not yet on that list. the german leopard to a heavily armed battle tang kia has long been asking for germany itself is so far, reluctant to deliver and says it would take a very long time,

many waiting. other countries like poland and finland, however, also have these tanks and are willing to send them to ukraine fast. but that to needs the green light from berlin and pressure is mounting. poland is now hinting it might go ahead without permission from berlin. i think that if there strong resistance polish deputy foreign minister, pavel jablonsky said we will be ready to take even such nonstandard action. but let's not anticipate the facts and we are now watching a press statement from you as defense. secretary lloyd austin and chairman of the joint, his staff, mark, lady, secretary austin. well, good afternoon everyone, and thank you all for joining us today at ramstein. we've just concluded the 8th ukraine defense contact group meeting. and it was great to start the new year by deepening our coordination as we worked together for ukraine's self defense

as programmed by no said this is a, a decisive decade for the world. and this is a decisive moment for ukraine struggle to defend itself. so this contact group will not slow down. we're going to continue to dig deep. and based upon the progress that we've made today, i'm confident that ukraine's partners from around the globe are determined to meet this moment. united states remains committed to leading in this coordinated effort. and this morning i was pleased to announce another major around of u. s. security assistance designed to me ukraine's urgent battlefield requirements . and this $2500000000.00 package is one of our largest, yet it helps ukraine meet its air defense needs, with additional may sams,

munitions, and 8 avenger air defense systems in this package also helps tackle ukraine's urgent need for armor and combat vehicles. it includes $59.00 additional bradley infantry fighting vehicles and 9 e striker armored personnel carriers, $53.00 m wraps and $350.00 up armored humvees. and it will provide thousands round a thousands more rounds of artillery. now we were honored to, to hear this morning from president zalinski of ukraine, and let me also think several other braves ukrainian leaders for joining us today. and that includes my good friend, mister alexi resnick, off the minister of defense. and lieutenant general morris shook the

deputy chief of defense. their presentations gave us a 1st tan of count what ukraine's military and citizens are facing. the day's meeting focused on ukraine's needs for air defense and armor. we also pushed hard on how to synchronize those donations. and turn them into fully operational capabilities and that means every step from donation to training to maintenance and then to sustainment. we also focus hard on how our collective and an individual training efforts would be prosecuted. so as you heard, president biden recently announced the latest us training initiative and

bills on us programs to train ukrainian troops, dating back to 2014 other countries are stepping up with their own initiatives and many are joining the european union's military assistance mission. and meanwhile, were also continuing to strengthen our defense industrial basis through the work of the national elements directors under the auspices of this contact group. and all of these efforts, underscore how much we've deepen our co operation since the contact group began last april. our work shows how much nations of good will can achieve when we worked together. and the shows are long term commitment to supporting ukraine against russia's unprovoked aggression. now as we saw again just days ago in the pro,

russia continues its assault on ukraine. civilian ants and critical infrastructure in russia continues to bombard ukraine cities with cruise missiles and drones. but the ukrainian people stand defiant and strong and ukrainian troops are bravely defending their country and their fellow citizens as russia, as cruelty deepens, the resolve of this contact group grows. and that's clear from the announcements that we've heard today. and i'll start with their defense. several countries have come forward with key donations that will help protect ukraine skies and cities and citizens. in france, germany and a u. k. have all donated air defense systems to ukraine. and that includes a paid a patriot battery from germany. and that's especially important coming alongside

our own contribution of a patriot system. and the netherlands is also donating a patriot missiles and launchers and training. meanwhile, canada has procured a ne sam system and associated munitions for ukraine. and so these air defense systems will help save countless innocent lives were also pushing hard to meet ukraine's requirements for tanks and other armored vehicles. the u. k. has an else a significant donation of challenger to tanks for ukraine. this is the 1st introduction of western main battle tanks into ukraine. my also command our british allies for, for making this decision and sweetened announced its donating the c b 90 infantry fighting vehicles. and an additional donation soon of archer howitzers.

we've also heard inspiring and important new donation announcements from several other countries and. and that includes denmark, which will donate 19 howitzers. in latvia, is donating more stingers, and helicopters and other equipment. and estonia is providing ukraine with significant new package of much needed 155 millimeter howitzers, and munitions. now all of today's announcements are our direct results of our work at the contact group. and these important new commitments demonstrate the ongoing resolve of our allies and partners to help you crane defend itself. because this isn't just about ukraine security. it's also about european security. and it's about global security. it's about the kind of world that we want to live in and it's about the world that we want our children and grandchildren to inherit. the members of this contact group are

standing up for a world war where rules matter and we're right matter. and we're sovereignty is respected and where people can choose their own path, free from tyranny and aggression. i'm confident that this group will remain united and will continue to build momentum. will support ukraine against russian aggression for the long haul. and will continue to work toward a free and secure your right ukraine in a stable and decent world. and with that, let me turn it over to the chairman for his comments. good afternoon everyone and thank you saturday. awesome fear, leadership in this a 8th mccraney in contact group and supportive ukrainian freedom. and thanks as well. all the minister isn't a charge. the chief, a defense over here who represented 54 different countries today. a special thank

you also to ukrainian minister defense risk off and deputy chief of defense sternum lasik. i had recently had an opportunity meet with a generals loosening in poland and general music was here representing him. they all represent the exceptional bravery of the crane, an army, and most importantly, the ukrainian people. this week after meeting generals, lose an opportunity to visit some of the training in the mac infantry that we are doing at graphing beer. here in a train here in germany, also and opportunities and coordination meetings and these botton and then attended the nato. chad's military committee meeting were all members of all the charge of nato, an opportunity to meet with one of the primary topics being support at ukraine. and then of course, this week ending it today this week with the, with the contact group. i think that over my 43 years in uniform,

this is the most unified. i've ever seen nato and i've dipped in and out of nato over many, many years. the wars evolved over the last 11 months. but the mission of this group is contact group under general, austin's leadership and a secretary austin leadership. as remain the same, we are effectively committed to support ukraine with capabilities to defend itself against illegal an unprovoked russian aggression. in the words of president biden, secretary austin, and many other national leaders as much as it takes for as long as it takes in order to keep ukraine free, independent and sovereign. these contact group meetings play an important role as we support ukraine in the defense of its territory. and they are clare unambiguous demonstration of the unity and resolve of the allied nations. yesterday, a secretary austin just mentioned, present biden released our 30th security assistance package,

signifying our continued commitment to ukraine. this package combined with our previous one enclosed combined, ours maneuver capabilities was supporting artillery equivalent to at least 2 combined ars maneuver brigades, or 6 mach infantry battalions, 10 motorized, infantry battalions and 4 artillery battalions, along with a lot of other equipment. this package, as you asked package along with the l. i do know donations. there are indicated today, signify our collective resolve in our commitment to ukraine, to protect their population from the indiscriminate russian attacks and to provide the armor necessary to go on the offensive to liberate russian occupied ukraine. additionally, this week in germany, we began to tie in and brigade collective training that i had an opportunity to visit at the combined house maneuver training center here in graphing beer and

supported the ukrainian army. that training, in addition to the equipment, will significantly increase ukrainians capability to defend itself for the russian attacks and to go on the tactical and operational offensive to liberate the occupied areas. with the training at the united states and our partners are doing, ukrainians will advance their command and control their tactics, techniques, and procedures. their ability to integrate fires with maneuver and they will more effectively synchronize all of the combined arms in order to execute maneuver based operations. the support that we discussed say in this contact group meeting. the training that we discussed today in the way ahead is really an extension of what's been going on since 2014 and day signifies of a real and tangible difference in the ukraine's efforts to defend itself. international aggression where large countries use military force to attack small

countries and change recognized borders cannot be allowed to stand. eventually, president bowden, russia will realize the full extent of their strategic miscalculation. but until boot an end, this war, his war of choice, the nations of this contact group will continue to support the defense of ukraine in order to uphold the rules based international order. thank you and welcome your questions. thank you, mr. secretary chairman, our 1st question will go to who tish bonnem becca from a ardie hello miss the secretary of defense. my question is, many of us thought that to day we will have a breakthrough in the discussion about heavy metal kings. you didn't mention that at all. we didn't talk about your part to apprentice tanks. so dicky, talk about that today. i think you heard you may have heard the german minister

defense say earlier that they've not made a decision on the provision of a leper tanks. and what we're really focused on is making sure that ukraine has a capability that it needs to be successful right now. so we have a window of opportunity here, you know, between now and the spring when i, you know, when, whenever they commence their operation, they're kind of offensive. and that's not a long time. and we have to pull together the right capabilities. and you heard the chairman walked through some of the substantial combat power that we and some of our allies have a offer offered to provide. there are tanks in that, in that those offerings, poland, for example, it continues to offer tanks and will provide tanks and other countries will offer

some take take time capability as well. i don't have any announcements to make on m ones and you heard the, the german minister of defense say that they've not made a decision on leopards. next question will go to eaters, ali reuters mrs. secretary over the past week, a number of european countries have puppets lead pleaded with germany to allow the transfer of their tanks. you mate with your german counterpart yesterday and like you said today, they still have not made a decision. are you disappointed in the german position, and how can germany still be seen as a reliable ally, given what is white? he perceived as them dragging their feet on something so simple and for the chairman. is there any prohibition on the use of american weapons by the ukrainians in crimea currently and you've talked about how this war like many others has to and through a negotiated settlement is now the time for the russians and ukrainians to come to

the table to talk about that oh, thanks leaders. well 1st let me say that her this isn't really about one single platform. and so our, our goal and i think we've been fairly successful at doing this and bringing go capability is to, is to provide the capability that ukraine needs to be successful in, in the near term. and so you've heard of talk about the 2 battalions of bradley in for t fighting vehicles. very capable platform ah, 3 battalions or brigades words of a strikers. as you add that up, that's just 2 brigades of combat power that the u. s. is providing along with enablers and other things. so you look at sweden providing a battalion of c, b 90 sets of armored personnel, carrier. the germans are providing martyrs. the, the polls are providing a battalions worth of

a mechanized capability. you heard the chairman highlight for battalions of, of artillery, mechanized artillery that's being provided. so this is a, this is a very, very capable package. and they, you know, if, if a, if employed properly, it will enable them to be successful. now we're going to sure ensure that we're doing everything necessary to ensure that they have the ability to employ properly . a you heard us talk about training, additional training that we're going to do. this is something that we haven't been able to do in the past. so as we speak, you know, troops are being linked up with bradley infantry fighting vehicles and they'll train for weeks not only on just how to operate the vehicles, but also on how to properly set conditions for maneuver and then maneuver. and then you know how to exploit a opportunities, how to breach obstacles. and so i think this will be a really,

really capable package that we put together. and i really do believe that it will enable the ukrainians to be successful going forward. so this is not dependent upon a single platform, and this is a, this is a combined arms effort that we brought together that i, i truly believe is gonna provide them best opportunity for success. and is the on your 1st question. typically, we're not going to discuss, i don't discuss either prohibitions or permissions authorities on the use of weapons, etc. that as that goes towards rules of engagement, we don't typically discuss those in public form on the 2nd question for president biden, pres, liskey, and most of the leaders of europe have said that this war is likely to end in the negotiation and, and from a military standpoint, there's a very, very difficult fight this fight stretchers it all away from. right. now's the

frontline goes from all the way from car to keep down to get us on and the significant fighting ongoing. and it's more or less a static front line, right? this minute with the exception about moon solid, are with a significant offense of action going on really from both sides. the distance that for the united states, that's about from a i guess, washington dc to atlanta. so that is a significant amount of territory. and in that territory are still remaining, a lot of russian forces in russia occupied ukraine. so from a military standpoint, i still maintain that for this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the russian forces from all every inch of ukrainian occupied, or russian act by ukraine. that doesn't mean it can't happen, doesn't mean it won't happen, but it be very, very difficult. i think what can happen as a is a continued defense stabilize in the front. i think it's possible to, to clearly do that and i think it's depending on the delivery and training of all

of this equipment. i do think it's very, very possible to, for the trainings to run a significant tactical, or, or even operational level offensive operation to liberate as much ukrainian territory as possible. and then we'll, then we'll see where it goes. but i do think at the end of the day, this war, like many wars in the past, will end at some sort of negotiating table. and that'll be determined in terms of timing, by the leaders of both countries. both, both the russia and ukraine, president pu in this war today it's, he started it, it's his war of choice. and he could end it today because it's turning into an absolute catastrophe for russia, a massive amounts of casualties. lots of other damages to the, to the russian military, et cetera. so he should and could, and this war right now, right today. thank you. our next question will go to answer stan z d f. thank you very much, mrs. secretary is gemini doing enough in order to show real leadership in europe. thank you. yes. but we can all do more and, you know,

united states and every other member of the u. d. c. can, can do more. no, germany has contributed a lot to this, to this campaign. and you know, from the very beginning we, we saw them cycle in air defense capability. now the gap arts, the patriots most recently, iris t. r. they stepped up and offered to provide the martyrs, they will provide the those martyrs and conduct the training on those platforms and, and we are training ukrainian soldiers on a, on maneuver and, and other things and, and specialty things here in germany as well. so germany has opened, it continues to open its doors and make the training areas and facilities available for us to continue to do the work that we need to do. an germany is also training troops and training a battalion and brigade headquarters. so, you know, they have

a big or in the water like the rest of the contact group does in their working hand in hand with, with, with the rest of our colleagues here. so i think he just asked me earlier if i, if, if germany was our leader i was at the right questionnaire. eaters are easy. oh yeah. okay. yeah. they are reliable. i and they've been that way for, for a very, very long time. and i, i truly believe that they'll continue to be a reliable ally going forward. i'm not to mention that they have germany is host to 39000 of my troops and their families, and also 10000 civilians here. and. and so we've had a great relationship, but throughout over the years and i it will continue to have that a great relationship, and germany will continue to exercise leadership going forward. thank you. our next

question will go to dan the mouth, washington post. good evening gentlemen. now, thanks for your time today. a secretary austin, a number of law makers, and observers have said that at this point makes sense to send in the small number of abrams tanks. if only to encourage germany to unlock the leopard tanks that they have not sent. is that feasible and if not, why not? and for the chairman police given the amount of armor the united states and allies are sending at this point. how confident are you that they can put together a coherent offensive in coming months? to what extent out and to the extent you can what them, what, what might that look like? and now separately you just reference reference the large number of casualties. can you give us any update on, on what you're seeing at this point for casualties. humble tides. thanks i think you heard the german prime minister of defense say earlier today that there is no

linkage between i'm providing him once and providing levrets and i think he was pretty clear about that. so this notion of unlocking, you know, i, in my mind is not, it's not an issue and more importantly, in his mind as well. and in terms of providing capability, what we know in the, in a department always look at is, you know, providing credible combat capability. we, we don't do things to, to, or employ capabilities that as, as a notion, you know, as a, as you know for, for anything other than providing credible combat capability. and that's where our focus will be in the future, whatever we do, whatever we employ. so it's a den on the in order to execute a successful offense of operation at the tactical operational level,

which is really what we're talking about here for the ukrainians. you've got a normally man, the unit which the crane inside the personnel. they have to be trained, so they got to be married up with the equipment, and then they got to be trained. and if you look at the weather and training center, you can see that you have a relatively short window of time to accomplish both those key tests. so that's very, very challenging to do that for all these different nations that we're here to day to assemble all of the equipment, get it all synchronized, get it, get the ukranian troops trained, etc. that'll be a very, very heavy left. so i'm confident, yes, i think it can be done, but i think that it will be a challenge. there was no question about it. so we'll see. i don't want to pick one way the other, but the ukranian forces so far have executed at least 2 and perhaps even more than that very successful offensive operations went up around dark eve crossing. ask your river in over into, in, into the russian lies to the east of the of carnegie. and then they've run

a very successful operation. donna carson. so it remains to be seen about the equipment getting married up with the people. people gotta get trained on the equipment and all that is gonna have to get shipped and into ukraine, etc. all put together inside it, a coherent plan. obviously general's lizzie and, and i and others have discussed what his visions were. not an executable level detail yet, but he's working on that. and we'll see which way it goes in terms of a casualties. you know, the numbers of casualties in war, always a suspect in, but i would tell you that the russian casualties last time i reported out on a publicly i said it was well over a 100000. i would say it's significantly well around a 1000 out. so the russians have suffered a tremendous amount of casualties in their, in their military. and that includes their regular military and also their mercenaries in the wagner groups in other type forces that are fighting with the russians. they have really suffered a lot. and now you saw that the russians did

a call up of a called out, i think called up, but immobilization 300000. i think they were able to get maybe 20250000 in that range. so they're replacing their losses in terms of manpower, but they have suffered a huge amount. ukraine is also suffered tremendously. you know, that there's, there's a significant amount of innocent civilians that have been killed as a result of the russian actions that the russians are hitting. so the, an infrastructure, there's a significant amount of economic damage, significant amount of damage to the energy infrastructure in the russian or the ukrainian military has suffered a significant amount of a casualties themselves. so this is a very, very bloody war, and there's significant casualties on both sides. and this is why i say that i think that sooner or later this is gonna have to get to a negotiating table at some point in order to bring this to a conclusion that will have to happen when the end state, which is a free sovereign independent ukraine with the starter intact has meant that when

that day comes, then people sit down and negotiate an end to this a. but there's been a huge amount of suffering on both sides. ladies and gentlemen, that is all the time we have available to day. mister secretary, gentlemen, we think you both gentlemen, this concludes our press briefing, thinking and if you're just joining us, we've been listening to a press conference by us defense secretary lloyd austin and the u. s. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, mark, milly, they were speaking at a meeting of nato and defense leaders at the us air base in ramstein. let's go back to d. w, as the chief political correspondent, nina houser, who is an ramstein and has been following the remarks made by the 2 of them. near the us defense secretary, he began by outlining all the new military aid that's being pledged by ukraine's allies. and again, he stressed that it's not just about insuring ukraine security, but it's also about the security of your.