NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged allies on Tuesday to speed up deliveries of heavy and more advanced weapons to repel Russian forces in Ukraine and expressed confidence that a decision on sending battle tanks to Kyiv would come soon. Stoltenberg was speaking in Berlin alongside Germany's new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who said his government would act quickly on the tanks if a consensus were to be found. Pressure has been building on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government to send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries to do the same — under military procurement rules, Germany must authorize any re-exports. But Scholz's Social Democrat party has been holding back, wary of sudden moves that could cause Moscow to escalate further. Poland, which has accused Germany of dragging its heels on the tanks, said on Tuesday it had formally requested permission from Berlin to re-export its Leopard tanks to Ukraine. "At this pivotal moment in the war, we must provide heavier and more advanced systems to Ukraine, and we must do it faster," NATO's Stoltenberg told reporters. "I therefore welcome our discussion today. We discussed the issue of battle tanks. Consultations among allies will continue and I'm confident we will have a solution soon," Stoltenberg added. Pistorius said Germany was not standing in the way of other countries training Ukrainian troops to use the Leopard tanks while talks continued. He said it was wrong to say that "there's disunity or that Germany is isolated". Scholz was trying to forge consensus on the tanks issue, he said, adding that NATO must not become party to the war in Ukraine. Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had signaled a possible breakthrough on Sunday when she said her government would not stand in the way if Poland wanted to send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. But on Tuesday, a German Foreign Ministry official appeared to temper those remarks by saying that Scholz would decide on sending the tanks. Meanwhile, planned amendments of Russia's transportation law will make it mandatory for people to book a time and place for any intended crossing of the border by car, the TASS news agency reported, raising the possibility of new restrictions on travel. "The passage of vehicles ... in order to cross the state border of the Russian Federation is carried out on a reserved date and time in accordance with the procedure established by the government," the agency said later on Monday, citing a draft amendment it said was due to come into force on March 1. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year, many Russian citizens and residents fled from the country, with the number growing significantly after the government declared the mobilization of some 300,000 personnel for the military in September. While precise totals are not available, the number of Russians who have left could run into hundreds of thousands, according to media reports and figures released by neighboring countries. The amendments to the law covering border crossings were prepared by the Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, TASS reported. It was not clear when the required readings of the draft amendments would take place. Also, Russia's new military reforms respond to possible NATO expansion and the use of Kyiv by the "collective West" to wage a hybrid war against Russia, the newly appointed general in charge of Russia's war in Ukraine said. Valery Gerasimov, in his first public comments since his Jan. 11 appointment to the role, also admitted to problems with the mobilization of troops after public criticism forced President Vladimir Putin to reprimand the military. The military reforms, announced mid-January, have been approved by Putin and can be adjusted to respond to threats to Russia's security, Gerasimov told the news website Argumenty i Fakty in remarks published late Monday. "Today, such threats include the aspirations of the North Atlantic Alliance to expand to Finland and Sweden, as well as the use of Ukraine as a tool for waging a hybrid war against our country," Gerasimov, who is also the chief of Russia's military general staff, said. Finland and Sweden applied last year to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation after Russia invaded Ukraine. Under Moscow's new military plan, an army corps will be added to Karelia in Russia's north, which borders Finland. The reforms also call for two additional military districts, Moscow and Leningrad, which existed before they were merged in 2010 to be part of the Western Military District. In Ukraine, Russia will add three motorized rifle divisions as part of combined arms formations in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, parts of which Moscow claims it annexed in September. "The main goal of this work is to ensure guaranteed protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country," Gerasimov said. Gerasimov added that modern Russia has never seen such "intensity of military hostilities", forcing it to carry out offensive operations to stabilize the situation. "Our country and its armed forces are today acting against the entire collective West," Gerasimov said. In the 11 months since invading Ukraine, Russia has been shifting its rhetoric on the war from an operation to "denazify" and "demilitarize" its neighbor to increasingly casting it as "defence" from "an aggressive West". The Kremlin has offered no concrete proof for its claims. Gerasimov and the leadership of the Defense Ministry have faced sharp criticism for multiple setbacks on the battlefield and Moscow's failure to secure victory in a campaign the Kremlin had expected to take just a short time. The country mobilized some 300,000 additional personnel in the fall proceeded chaotically. "The system of mobilization training in our country was not fully adapted to the new modern economic relations," Gerasimov said. "So I had to fix everything on the go." Also, Ukraine has imposed sanctions on 22 Russians associated with the Russian Orthodox Church for what President Volodymyr Zelensky said was their support of genocide under the cloak of religion. According to a decree issued by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the list includes Mikhail Gundayev, who represents the Russian Orthodox Church in the World Council of Churches and other international organizations in Geneva. Russian state media reported that Gundayev is a nephew of the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill. Ukraine sanctioned Kirill last year. The sanctions are the latest in a series of steps Ukraine has taken against the Russian Orthodox Church, which has backed President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine that is now entering its 12th month. "Sanctions have been imposed against 22 Russian citizens who, under the guise of spirituality, support terror and genocidal policy," Zelensky said in his nightly address late on Monday. — Euronews
