Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv pulls back Abrams tanks due to drone raids and losses, says US

Ukraine has taken American Abrams M1A1 battle tanks off the frontline, partly because of Russian drone tactics, Pentagon officials have said. The US agreed to send 31 Abrams to Ukraine in January 2023. Five have been lost to Russian attacks. The proliferation of drones means “there isn’t open ground that you can just drive across without fear of detection”, a senior defence official said on Thursday. “Now, there is a way to do it,” he said. “We’ll work with our Ukrainian partners, and other partners on the ground, to help them think through how they might use that, in that kind of changed environment now, where everything is seen immediately.”

The Ukrainians have not adopted tactics that could have made the tanks more effective, one of the US defence officials said, such as in combined-arms warfare, training for which was provided by the US in Germany. Russian forces have sustained heavy losses of their own tanks and armoured equipment due to highly effective surveillance and attacks by Ukrainian drone warfare units.

The US does not expect Ukraine to launch large-scale offensive operations against Russian forces in the near term, a US defence official said. The goal was to help Ukraine’s forces “regain the initiative … In terms of what we see in the next several months of operations, Ukrainians will need to rebuild quite a bit to take on board all of these new supplies after having rationed ammunition and other supplies … and ensure that they can defend their positions”.

Intense artillery, rocket and drone attacks either side of the Russia-Ukraine frontline left at least 10 people dead and more than a dozen wounded, regional officials said. Russian attacks killed at least six in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials said. Four people were killed in Russian-occupied parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, according to Moscow-installed authorities.

China must stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine if it wants to enjoy good relations with the west, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said in Berlin on Thursday. “Last year, Russia imported 90% of its microelectronics from China, used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft. China is also working to provide Russia with improved satellite capabilities and imaging,” he said. “China says it wants good relations with the west … They cannot have it both ways.”

Stoltenberg cautioned western allies: “In the past, we made the mistake of becoming dependent on Russian oil and gas. We must not repeat that mistake with China. Depending on its money, its raw materials, its technologies – dependencies make us vulnerable.”

Emmanuel Macron has warned that Europe faces an existential threat from Russian aggression and must adopt a “credible” defence strategy less dependent on the US. The French president described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay. In his almost two-hour-long speech, Macron warned that “our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die”, Jennifer Rankin writes from Brussels.

Poland and Lithuania have said they are prepared to help Ukrainian authorities return men subject to military conscription, after Ukraine’s government announced this week that it was suspending consular services and the issue of passports for such men who are living abroad, Shaun Walker writes from Warsaw. “We have suggested for a long time that we can help the Ukrainian side ensure that people subject to [compulsory] military service go to Ukraine,” Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland’s defence minister, told the television channel Polsat. His Lithuanian counterpart, Laurynas Kasčiūnas, said his country may make similar efforts. “Ukraine is very short of mobilisation reserve … This is not fair to those citizens who are fighting for their country.”

The Polish parliament is due to consider new regulations next week that would require all Ukrainians to show a valid passport to be able to access benefits in Poland. Previously, Ukrainian refugees had been able to do so by showing any other documents proving their identity. Kosiniak-Kamysz, the defence minister, said: “I think many Poles are outraged when they see young Ukrainian men in hotels and cafes, and they hear how much effort we have to make to help Ukraine.” Tadeusz Kołodziej, a Polish NGO lawyer, said: “The draft text we have seen would cut around 80% of benefits for people without passports … If it will be impossible to get a passport, many of these people may ask for asylum.”

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, said he met the UK finance minister, Jeremy Hunt, in Kyiv and called for sanctions against Russia to be tightened to stop Moscow bypassing them. France is calling for further sanctions against Russia, targeted against officials and organisations involved in attempts to disrupt elections and the democratic process in EU member states, according to a paper seen by the Guardian.