some leopard tanks to ukraine while holding back the american-made abrams model. what s the difference, and can ukraine get some tanks before russia ramps up its war in the spring? plus, a new investigation opened in new mexico into a republican candidate s campaign possibly being laced with money from fentanyl sales just days after his arrest accused of plotting to shoot the homes of his democratic rivals. and julia roberts made her a household name. coming up, the real erin brockovich is here on a mission to help military families. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper and we start with the world lead in what appears to be a standoff between the united states and germany when it comes to giving more heavy weapons to ukraine. more than 50 countries and organizations met at ramstein air base in germany led by top military leaders but the group failed to come to an agreement on one of ukraine s most pressing request, whether or not germany will send the leopard tanks to i
bakhmut in ukraine. and the reason this matters, jake, is because the fight for bakhmut, as has become the case with much of the war in ukraine, has become a war of attrition that military and intelligence officials increasingly say is really likely to turn on access to artillery ammunition, which side is able to sustain its supply of artillery ammunition the longest. one senior western intelligence official that i spoke to earlier today said in bakhmut alone, the two sides are spending up to multiple thousands of rounds of ammunition a day, which is just staggering. so what north korea is doing here is really helping wagner, and by extension the russian side, perpetuate this fight in bakhmut that our sources say has left this part of ukraine looking like they re done. will the weapons and ammunition from north korea make a difference in ukraine? not necessarily from a broader strategic perspective. the fight in bakhmut specifically is not seen, even if russia is able to
directly from russian prisons. wagner leader is known as putin s chef, not only have his restaurants and catering company hosted dinners attended by putin and other world leaders, but he s also known for serve up corps. sources tell cnn wagner wants soldiers who are drunk or high all the time in order to carry out brutal executions, beheadings and assaults. this comes after the u.s. released declassified photos of russian rail cars traveling back and forth to north korea. explain the significance of these rail cars. jake, so these images that the administration released today reportedly show rail cars full of artillery ammunition provided by north korea to the wagner group, which for months has been fighting this just punishing battle, this very, very difficult back and forth brutal fight for the city of