Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin suspends key US-Russia nuclear treaty in speech denouncing West

Two U.S. officials confirm that the U.S. has prepared plans to send Patriot air defense missile systems to Ukraine that could be approved by President Joe Biden as early as this week.

If approved by Biden, the transfer of the advanced air defense systems would meet a long-standing request from Ukraine.

The U.S. has stressed the importance of Ukraine getting additional air defense systems in the coming months but has worked with other countries on alternative systems other than the Patriot.

The Patriot missile systems to be given to Ukraine will come from
U.S. inventories under the presidential drawdown authority, according to officials.

Another one of those announcements is expected to be announced on Thursday, though it is unclear if the Patriots will be included as part of that package.

If Biden approves the Patriot systems, then the training of Ukrainian troops will begin in Germany a few weeks later, officials said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin must sign off on the transfer before it goes to the White House.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

Soviet-era tanks are getting new optics, armor, and more at a Czech facility in Šternberk, thanks partly to the efforts of Ukrainian refugees working there.

Around 150 people have been hired by Excalibur Army in an effort to modernize old military equipment from around the world, which will then be shipped to Ukraine after months of work on upgrades.

According to the company's commercial director, Richard Kuběna, it is concentrating on a large order to modernize up to 120 T-72 tanks, which the U.S. and the Netherlands governments ordered and paid 2.2 billion crowns for.

The tanks were ordered initially from Šternberk by an African country. However, after negotiating with the U.S., E.U., and Czech Ministry of Defense, they decided to give the tanks to Ukraine, Kuběna said.

"Next week, the first five units of tanks for Ukraine will be received, we would like to deliver 18 units by the end of the year," noted Kuběna.

Kuběna said he would like to deliver a total of 90 tanks to Ukraine.

-ABC News’ William Gretsky

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has agreed to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations watchdog group, to dispatch nonstop safety and security teams to all of the nuclear plants in the country.

The move is part of efforts to prevent a nuclear incident during the country’s war with Russia, the IAEA said in a statement on Tuesday.

Over the past month, Ukraine and the IAEA have conducted week-long nuclear safety missions at three in-use nuclear plants in the country, as well as Chernobyl. Tuesday’s decision makes their effort permanent.

“This is especially important at a time when Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the war and in the middle of the winter,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement.

A Kremlin official said on Tuesday that Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine was “out of the question.”

A reporter asked Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov for comment on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s proposal that Russia start to pull out forces from Ukraine before Christmas. Peskov was also asked whether Moscow was ready to do so before the end of this year.

“This is out of the question,” Peskov said.

-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Anastasia Bagaeva