The administration of Joe Biden is finalizing plans to ship US-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine and could make an announcement this week, according to US officials familiar with the deliberations.
The timing of the actual delivery of the tanks is not yet known and it normally takes several months to train troops to use the tanks effectively, authorities said.
It is unclear how many tanks would be shipped to Ukraine and Ukrainian tank crews must first receive training in both operations and maintenance.
The news comes on the heels of the expected announcement that Germany will send its own Leopard tanks, and Poland’s request to Berlin on Monday for permission to export its own Leopard tanks, which were made in Germany. Other countries operating the Leopard are expected to follow suit.
The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, He has consistently asked Western allies for modern tanks as his country prepares for a major Russian counteroffensive expected in the spring, and until last week the Pentagon had been reluctant to agree to that request.
In recent weeks, defense officials have stressed that the Abrams tank is not what Ukraine needs right now due to the significant maintenance it requires and the fact that it runs on jet fuel, not diesel like other tank models.
Despite those difficulties, the Abrams would still provide a significant capability for Ukraine to go on the offensive, even if it is in the medium to long term.
The United States has committed to training 500 Ukrainians per month in combined arms maneuvers: how to move in battalion-sized groups and coordinate operations between air and ground. That large-scale training is in addition to specific training in complex weapons systems that the US has recently engaged in, such as that related to the operation and maintenance of Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and Patriot air defense systems.
The United States has delivered more than $26.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration.
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Source: La Opinion
