New German minister debating Ukraine tanks

In the central city of Dnipro, authorities called an end to the search for survivors in the ruins of an apartment building destroyed during Russian missile attacks on Saturday.

Forty-four people were confirmed killed and 20 more are still unaccounted for in the attack, the deadliest for civilians in a three-month Russian missile bombardment campaign.

Seventy-nine people were wounded and 39 were rescued from the rubble.

Almost 11 months after Russia invaded, Kyiv says a fleet of Western battle tanks would give its troops the mobile firepower to drive Russian troops out in decisive battles in 2023.

German-made Leopard battle tanks, the workhorse of armies across Europe, cannot be delivered without authorisation from Berlin, which has so far demurred.

With Western allies meeting at a United States air base in Germany on Friday to pledge military support for Ukraine, Berlin is under intense pressure to lift its objections this week.

The decision sits on the desk of Germany's new Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, named on Tuesday to replace Christine Lambrecht, who quit after comments critics called insensitive.

"When the person, when the minister of defence, is declared, this is the first question to be decided concretely," German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told Deutschlandfunk radio on Tuesday before the appointment was announced.

In his first comments on the job, Pistorius, a regional politician viewed as close to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, made no mention of weapons for Ukraine.

"I know the importance of the task," he said in a statement.

"It is important to me to involve the soldiers closely and to take them with me."

Pistorius will host US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday ahead of Friday's meeting of allies at Ramstein air base.

Germany has been cautious about approving weapons that could be seen as escalating conflict.

Scholz, speaking on Tuesday in an interview for Bloomberg TV, confirmed discussions with Germany's allies on tanks were ongoing but should not be conducted in public.

The Kremlin said last week new deliveries of weapons, including French-made armoured vehicles, to Kyiv would "deepen the suffering of the Ukrainian people" and would not change the course of the conflict.

Vladimir Solovyev, a pro-Kremlin presenter on Rossiya 1 state television, said any Western countries that supplied more advanced weapons to Ukraine should be considered legitimate targets for Russia.

Since President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine on February 24, the United States and its allies have given tens of billions of dollars' worth of weaponry including rocket systems, drones, armoured vehicles and communications systems.

Ukraine's top general, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said he had outlined his forces' "urgent needs" in a first personal meeting on Tuesday in Poland with the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley.

Poland and Finland have already said they would send Leopards if Berlin gives re-export approval.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told US President Joe Biden on Tuesday the Netherlands would join the US and Germany in sending Patriot missiles to Ukraine.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said NATO allies were conveying a clear message to Putin by boosting their arms supplies to Ukraine.

"The message we're sending to Putin ... is that we made a commitment to support Ukrainians until they are victorious," Cleverly told a forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

A senior Ukrainian official blamed Russia for carrying out the bulk of more than 2000 cyber attacks on Ukraine in 2022, speaking at a news conference he said was itself delayed because of a cyber attack.

There was no immediate comment on his allegations from Moscow.

Australian Associated Press