Germany and the US are Prepared to Send Tanks to Ukraine

The United States and Germany apparently have plans to send tanks to Ukraine after months of delaying the move, which Kyiv hopes will shift the combat dynamic.

At least 30 M1 Abrams tanks are expected to be supplied under US President Joe Biden’s administration. Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, reportedly had at least 14 Leopard 2 tanks on the way as well. He is set to address the parliament on Wednesday morning.

According to Ukrainian officials, heavier armaments are desperately needed, and more battle tanks might aid Kyiv’s army in taking back territory from the Russians. However, up until this point, the US and Germany have defied calls from both inside and outside their countries to send their tanks to Ukraine.

Because of worries that supplying tanks would exacerbate the battle and render Nato an active participant in the fight with Russia, Germans have experienced months of difficult political debate.

Anonymous officials are claimed in US media as suggesting at least 30 Abrams may be supplied, and the declaration regarding deployments to Ukraine could happen as soon as Wednesday.

According to reports, German officials had insisted that only if the US also delivered M1 Abrams would they consent to the delivery of Leopard 2s to Ukraine.

The Challenger 2 tanks will be delivered to Ukraine by the British government. Poland, one of 16 European and NATO countries with “Leopard 2” tanks made in Germany, has lobbied for Kyiv to receive the tanks, but export laws require Berlin to give its consent.

The head of the German parliament’s defence committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann of the liberal FDP party, commended the allegations despite the absence of official comment from the German government. In recent days, the Allied nations had grown impatient with what they saw as Germany’s hesitation to dispatch the military cars.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius alleged that while Berlin had granted permission to other nations to train Ukrainians to operate Leopard 2 tanks, it had not promised to send its own.

“If the US decides to send tanks, then rationalising such a decision with arguments about “defence weapons” would surely not work,” said Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to Washington, on Telegram.