US finally agrees to supply tanks to Ukraine

The United States is going to supply M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine anyway. US President Joe Biden announced this at a press conference on Wednesday. Earlier, Germany already gave permission to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

The US supplies 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. According to official figures, the country owns about six thousand in total. A government official says the delivery of the tanks could take months.

The supply of tanks, according to Biden, does not cause escalation. The tanks were not supposed to be an” offensive threat ” to Russia, since they are intended to defend the territory of Ukraine.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is very pleased with the announcement, he writes in a tweet. He calls the delivery of the Abrams tanks an “important step towards victory”.

US government officials insisted for months that supplying Abrams tanks is unrealistic. In particular, they pointed out that the maintenance of the tanks is “extremely difficult and expensive”. For example, they run on kerosene instead of diesel. Also, Ukrainian servicemen must undergo long training before they can put the vehicles into service.

But the Pentagon is still tacking. The Arab branch of Sky News was the first to report on the delivery plans before the official announcement. According to the news channel, the Pentagon is now convinced that Kyiv needs about five hundred tanks to withstand the next Russian offensive.

Germany gave the green light for European tank deliveries a day earlier. On Wednesday, it became clear that Germany with European allies will donate almost ninety modern Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Those tanks are seen as the best, heaviest and deadliest tanks made in Europe.

Meanwhile, numerous European countries have announced tank deliveries. Other countries say they are open to supplying tanks.

Zelensky is pleased with the tank delivery from Europe. “We are sincerely grateful to Germany and all our other friends,” he said earlier. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on countries to supply Kyiv with “as many” tanks as possible.