Thursday briefing: Could a supply of European tanks turn the tide in Ukraine?

A Ukrainian T-72 tank manoeuvres through the trees in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on 18 January 2023. Photograph: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA

Good morning. Yesterday afternoon, Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the World Economic Forum conference at Davos – and as well as presiding over a minute’s silence to mark the dreadful Kyiv helicopter crash that killed at least 14 people including interior minister Denys Monastyrsky, he had a specific request.

“Tyranny is outpacing democracy,” he said. “The supply of western tanks must outpace another invasion of Russian tanks.”