TOP HEADLINES

· Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address to the World Economic Forum in Davos that Western supplies of tanks and air defense units should come more quickly before Russia mounted a fresh assaults.

· European Council President Charles Michel met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv, saying that "we must spare no effort" in helping Ukraine join the 27-member bloc.

· A group of 11 NATO countries, including the UK and Poland, have pledged billions in military assistance to Kyiv following talks in Brussels, just one day ahead of Friday's crunch talks at a U.S. army base in Germany on whether Ukraine's allies will send it heavier weapons, including battle tanks. READ MORE BELOW

· Poland's prime minister said he was "moderately pessimistic" about Berlin allowing other countries to re-export the tanks to Ukraine. 

· The Biden Administration is set to approve a new aid package to Ukraine, worth more than $2 billion.

· The Netherlands said it was finalizing plans to provide Patriot air missile defense systems to Ukraine with Germany and the U.S.. 

· Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has hit out against a ban on Russian soldiers wearing beards, joining Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin in the two men's latest criticism against Moscow's military leadership.

· The Kremlin has said Ukrainian strikes on Russian-occupied Crimea would be "extremely dangerous", after the New York Times reported that U.S. officials were starting to support the idea of helping Kyiv attack the peninsula.

· Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, has warned NATO that the defeat of Russia in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war.

· Russia's Wagner group have claimed to have taken the village of Klishchiivka, on the edge of the key eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, but said that Ukrainian forces could not be forced from strategic Donetsk hub swiftly.

IN DETAIL

Crunch arms meeting in Germany

Western allies have promised to send billions of dollars in new weapons to Ukraine following the first day of a meeting of Western allies in Germany, but questions remain over whether to send heavy tanks, with Berlin under pressure to lift its veto on exports.

Ukraine has been pushing for German-made Leopard battle tanks, which are held by many NATO nations, but their transfer to Ukraine would require Germany's approval. Berlin has indicated it could support the transfer if Washington sends its own Abrams tanks, which so far it has not agreed to do.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been reluctant to send weapons seen as provoking a direct military standoff with Moscow despite Berlin's Western allies criticizing the decision. 

There was no word on whether U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the new German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who met in Berlin, had made progress ahead of a meeting of dozens of allies on Friday at Ramstein, Washington's main European air base.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hinted at Germany's reluctance over the tanks.

"I am powerful in Europe, I will help if someone else outside of Europe will also help. It seems to me that this is not a very correct strategy," he said.

The Ramstein meeting on Friday is seen as a chance for the West to bolster Ukraine's war effort and help it potentially defeat Russia in 2023. But Kyiv says it needs heavy tanks if it is to beat off Russian attacks and recapture occupied land.

"We have no time, the world does not have this time," Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, wrote on Telegram on Thursday. "We are paying for the slowness with the lives of our Ukrainian people. It shouldn't be like that."

Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said she was confident a solution would be found for supplying modern battle tanks to Ukraine, but countries would need permission from Berlin before deciding whether to contribute.

Russia has responded to the prospect of more weapons for Kyiv with threats of escalation. Former president Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, made one of Moscow's clearest threats to use nuclear weapons if it loses in Ukraine.

"The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war," Medvedev said. "Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends."

Video editor: Butchy Davy