Russia's war on Ukraine latest: U.S., Germany to send scores of battle tanks to Kyiv

The United States said on Wednesday it would supply Ukraine with 31 of its

most advanced battle tanks after Germany broke a taboo with a similar announcement, moves hailed by Kyiv as a potential turning point in its battle to repel Russia's invasion.

WEAPONS * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the U.S. announcement was an "important step on the path to victory." He tweeted: "Today the free world is united as never before for a common goal", which he described as the liberation of Ukraine.

* Germany announced plans to supply its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, overcoming misgivings about sending heavy weaponry that Kyiv sees as crucial to defeat Russia's invasion but Moscow casts as a dangerous provocation. * Russia reacted with fury to Germany's decision to approve the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, saying Berlin was abandoning its "historical responsibility to Russia" arising from Nazi crimes in World War Two.

* Germany's decision paved the way for European allies like Poland, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway to supply some of their Leopard tanks to Ukraine, going some way towards delivering the hundreds of tanks Kyiv says it needs.

* France, which is sending lighter armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine, welcomed the offers of tanks but did not promise to send its own. * Ukraine will now push for Western fourth generation

fighter jets such as the U.S. F-16 after securing supplies of main battle tanks, an adviser to the defence minister said.

* The Russian Defence Ministry said the frigate Admiral Gorshkov had tested its strike capabilities in the western Atlantic, running a computer simulation on hypersonic Zircon missiles. BATTLEFIELD

* The Russian-installed governor of Ukraine's Donetsk region said units of the Wagner contract militia were advancing in the town of Bakhmut, with fighting taking place in previously Ukrainian-held neighbourhoods. CYBER WAR

* Russian hackers knocked several German websites offline in response to Berlin's decision to send tanks to Ukraine, although Germany's BSI cyber agency said they had little tangible effect. DIPLOMACY

* The European Court of Human Rights allowed cases brought against Russia by Ukraine and the Netherlands alleging human rights violations in the breakaway Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, and the shooting down of Flight MH-17. * The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO designated the historic centre of Odesa, a port city on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, a World Heritage in Danger site.

CIVILIANS * The Ukrainian Red Cross said it was preparing for more aid to the civil population in war zones in light of a possible new Russian offensive.

UKRAINIAN POLITICS * Five top Ukrainian regional prosecutors were dismissed on Wednesday, a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy launched Ukraine's largest political shake-up of the war.

* The shake-up of Ukraine's government underlines Zelenskiy's need to show key Western partners and war-weary Ukrainians that he is serious

about tackling corruption and punishing misrule. QUOTES

"A few hundred tanks for our tank crews .... This is what is going to become a real punching fist of democracy," Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's administration, wrote on Telegram. "We will not become a party to the war, we will make sure of that." - German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.

"They burn just like all the rest." -Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, on the prospect of U.S. tanks going to Ukraine. (Compiled by Kevin Liffey and Mark Heinrich)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)