The Wall Street Journal: The United States is inclined to supply Abrams tanks to Ukraine, Washington is ready to send M1 Abrams to Ukraine in order for Berlin to approve the transfer of German Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev, Sky News Arabia reported, citing a Pentagon source
The administration of US President Joe Biden is inclined to send a significant number of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported, citing unnamed officials. This may be announced this week, the newspaper writes.
The announcement will be part of a broad diplomatic agreement between Washington and Berlin. It lies in the fact that in the case of sending American tanks, Germany will agree to send German Leopard 2 to Kiev itself, and will also approve the transfer of such tanks that Poland and other countries have, the newspaper notes.
The White House declined to comment.
US President Joe Biden is ready to send ten Abrams tanks to Kiev in order to “break the knot” in the situation around the German Leopard 2, the transfer of which Germany has not agreed to Ukraine, Sky News Arabia reports, citing a senior official at the Pentagon. At the same time, the interlocutor of the TV channel says, “it seems that there are other agreements with Olaf Scholz” on this topic.
The change in the US position followed a telephone conversation between Biden and Scholz on January 17, during which the American leader, contrary to the Pentagon’s decision, agreed to consider the issue of Abrams supplies to Ukraine, the WSJ points out. The issue has been the subject of intense negotiations between Washington and Berlin for a week and appears to be on the way to a resolution, a senior German official told the newspaper.
Ukraine has repeatedly appealed to Western countries with a request for the supply of heavy tanks. In mid-January, the Pentagon called it impractical to transfer M1 Abrams to Kiev due to the high cost of their maintenance.
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At the same time, the United States and a number of European countries are trying to convince Germany to approve the transfer of German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. According to ABC, a total of 12 states are in favor of this. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the WSJ and Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote, called the transfer of American tanks a condition for sending German tanks.
The issue of supplying tanks to Kiev was discussed by NATO and other countries during a meeting of the contact group on the defense of Ukraine at the Ramstein airbase. It was not possible to achieve results in this direction, CNN reported.
The shipment of tanks to Ukraine has already been announced by France (light wheeled AMX-10 RC) and the United Kingdom (Challenger 2). The Kremlin said that the countries supplying weapons to Kiev are responsible for this, and the Ukrainian people will pay for such pseudo-support. The transfer of tanks “will add problems” to Ukraine, but will not prevent the achievement of the goals of the Russian special operation, noted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
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