The United States said yesterday it would send 31 of its most advanced battle tanks worth $400 million to Ukraine after Germany broke the taboo with a similar announcement. Ukrainian authorities hailed the moves as a potential turning point in the fight against the Russian invasion.
The US decision to send M1 Abrams tanks helped break a diplomatic deadlock with Germany over how best to help Ukraine in its war with Russia, which condemned Berlin's decision to send Leopard 2 tanks as a dangerous provocation.
Washington balked at the idea of sending Abrams to Ukraine, which are difficult to maintain, but had to change its approach to convince Germany to send Leopard tanks, which are more suitable for Ukraine.
Senior US administration officials said it would take several months to deliver the Abrams and described the move as providing Ukraine with long-term defense, Reuters reported.
"There is no offensive threat to Russia" from tanks, US President Joe Biden said.
"Russia's expectation is that we will divide," Biden said of the US and its European allies. "However, we are fully united ... Putin expected our support for Ukraine to collapse over time. He was wrong ... These tanks are another proof of our permanent, tireless commitment to Ukraine and our confidence in the skill of the Ukrainian forces," he said. American president.
Moscow is increasingly portraying the war as a dangerous confrontation between Russia and NATO.
Western allies want to prepare Ukraine for a possible counter-offensive in the spring to try to drive Russian forces out of territory in the south and east of the country it captured in an 11-month war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the delivery of "Abrams" will be a waste of money because they will "burn" like other tanks in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the US decision on tanks is "an important step on the way to victory". He told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz over the phone that he was "sincerely grateful to the Chancellor and to all our friends in Germany."
In a post on Twitter, he added: "Today the free world is united like never before for a common cause," which he described as the liberation of Ukraine.
"The main thing is that this is just the beginning. We need hundreds of tanks, Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, announced on Telegram.
Ukraine's defense minister said yesterday that the country will now insist that the West send it fourth-generation fighter jets like the American F-16s.
The White House announced that yesterday Biden spoke with Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni and Great Britain Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about the close cooperation of their countries in providing support to Kiev.
Germany announced that in the first phase it will send a company of 14 "Leopard 2" tanks to Ukraine from its stocks, and approve deliveries from other European countries. The ultimate goal is to send two "Leopard" battalions to Ukraine, usually consisting of three or four companies, with the first shipment arriving in three or four months.
"Germany will always be at the forefront when it comes to supporting Ukraine," Scholz said in a speech to the German parliament, which was met with applause.
Reuters reports that the move removes one of the last taboos in Western support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion, which is the delivery of weapons that are mainly for offensive rather than defensive purposes.
The West is reluctant to send heavy offensive weapons to Kiev for fear of provoking nuclear power Russia.
Moscow says that deliveries of modern offensive weapons to Ukraine will only delay what it says is an inevitable victory. Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to Washington, said the deliveries of American tanks would be "another obvious provocation."
The Kremlin: The Betrayal of History
Russia has reacted angrily to Germany's decision to approve the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, saying Berlin is abandoning its "historical responsibility towards Russia" stemming from Nazi atrocities in World War II.
The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, announced on Telegram that the move was a confirmation of Germany's involvement in a "pre-planned war" against Russia.
The Russian embassy in Berlin said that this decision will lead to an escalation of the 11-month war in Ukraine.
"This extremely dangerous decision brings the conflict to a new level of confrontation," said Ambassador Sergey Nechayev. He added that it will cause "irreparable damage to Russian-German relations, which are regrettable anyway."
President Vladimir Putin avoided commenting on Germany's landmark decision during a visit to Lomonosov Moscow State University, where he only briefly touched on the "complicated" security situation facing Russia.
Germany's decision followed weeks of hesitation by the Scholz government due to concerns about escalating the war and provoking Russia.
More than 80 years after their country attacked Soviet Russia and Ukraine in World War II, some Germans are against the idea of sending tanks to the new hot spot there because of a sense of historical guilt that a Russian embassy statement takes direct aim at.
"Berlin's decision means the final refusal of the Federal Republic of Germany to accept historical responsibility towards our people for the terrible and timeless crimes of Nazism in the Great Patriotic War and consigning to oblivion the difficult path of post-war reconciliation between Russians and Germans," Nechayev said.
"With the approval of the leadership of Germany, battle tanks with German crosses will again be sent to the 'eastern front', which will inevitably lead to the death of not only Russian soldiers, but also the civilian population."
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