U.S, Germany set to supply tanks to Ukraine

U.S and Germany will provide Ukrainian crews with more protection, speed and accuracy. But if half a dozen Western nations each provide 14 tanks, then that would bring the total to nearly 100 which could make a difference.

This was confirmed by Ukrainian officials who added that Western tanks – including the UK’s Challenger 2, Germany’s Leopard 2 and the US-made Abrams – are all seen as superior to their Soviet-era counterparts, like the ubiquitous T-72.

But Western modern main battle tanks are not a wonder weapon or game-changer on their own. It’s also what’s being supplied alongside them. In recent weeks, there’s been a step change in heavy weapons being supplied by the West – including hundreds more armoured vehicles, artillery systems and ammunition.

Combined together, they are the kind of military hardware needed to punch through Russian lines and to retake territory. If Ukrainian troops can be trained and the weapons delivered in time, they could form key elements of any spring offensive. A missing element for offensive operations is still air power.

Ukraine has been asking for the West to provide modern fighter jets since the war began. So far, none has been delivered. While there has been no official statement from the German government, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann of the liberal FDP party, who chairs the defence committee of the German parliament, welcomed the reports.

“The decision was tough, it took far too long, but in the end it was unavoidable,” she said, adding that it would come as a relief to “the battered and brave Ukrainian people”.

Allied nations had become frustrated at what they perceived as German reluctance to send the armoured vehicles in recent days. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius earlier said that Berlin had given other nations the green light to train Ukrainians to use Leopard 2 tanks, but did not commit to sending their own.

The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, on Tuesday called on Western countries to give Kyiv hundreds of tanks to form a “crushing fist” against Russia.

“Tanks are one of the components for Ukraine to return to its 1991 borders,” he wrote on Telegram. Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to Washington, wrote on Telegram: “If the United States decides to supply tanks, then justifying such a step with arguments about ‘defensive weapons’ will definitely not work.

“This would be another blatant provocation against the Russian Federation.”

Reuters/P.A