U.S, Allies Pledge Tanks to Ukrainian Armed Forces
February 9, 2023
The United States has pledged to send 31 American M1-Abrams tanks to Ukrainian forces resisting the invading Russian army as the one-year mark of the operation approaches on February 20th.
The deal comes following several months of pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for relief supplies from western nations. Zelenskyy even visited Washington D.C to give an emotional speech before the U.S congress a week before Christmas.
Following Zelenskyy’s visit, the Pentagon’s spent January overseas in Berlin, discussing a coordinated tank effort between NATO allies to all donate tank reserves for the Ukrainians.
Not willing to be the only provider of this effort, Germany opposed U.S. talks for several weeks, causing tension between European countries.
Germany announced their plan to give tanks to Ukraine early Wednesday followed by a press conference by English PM Rishi Sunak and controversial Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, each announcing their own tank contributions to the resisting nation.
The US M1 Abrams was designed and manufactured by Chrysler’s Defense division in 1973 and made available in 1980, first deployed to combat in 1991 during the Gulf War. Chrysler’s defense division was sold to General Dynamics in 1982 who have been producing the M1 Abrams to this day.
The M1 Abrams remains the workhorse of the U.S armed forces and will greatly improve Ukraine’s fighting chances. Ukraine will also receive 14 equally-powerful Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, as well as British Challenger-2 tanks and armored anti-tank AMX-10 vehicles from France.
According to the Pentagon, this tank effort was made possible by the most recent meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which is a pact of 50 nations from NATO and across the world, coordinating efforts to support and plan tactics for the Ukrainian army.
Last week, the group’s leader, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III, convened a meeting at Germany’s Ramstein Airforce base between all member countries, the eighth conference to be held since the invasion began.
Because of this clause, questions were raised about whether Germany pressured the U.S. to make this commitment of 31 tanks- a question that was raised to President Joe Biden following his press conference announcement of the deal. Before leaving the room, a reporter asked the president if this announcement was made after threats from Germany, but Biden assured the press that this was made regardless of European pressure and that the U.S remains at the helm of Ukraine’s relief effort.
On the topic of funding, the Pentagon added that the money for the maintenance, crew training, and transportation of these tanks will be drawn from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, or USAI for short. The package was passed by congress in August of last year for $3 billion dollars all to go towards bolstering Ukrainian security.
According to the United States Department of Defense, $27.8 billion dollars has been spent towards Ukrainian defense since the invasion last February.
The tank effort will take months to complete between transport and training time.
The rest of January, February, and March will mark a waiting period for both sides of the war, with an offensive likely opening in the spring. The Ukrainian armed forces hope to resist any new Russian gains now thanks to a few world-class tank divisions.