Germany and the United States will send several new combat tanks to Ukraine. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the action as a potential turning point in the country’s fight against Russia’s invasion, while the Kremlin called it a “extremely dangerous” move.
Hours after Germany declared it would deploy Leopard 2 tanks, US President Joe Biden announced the decision to supply 31 M1 Abrams tanks. Russia has declared that any Abrams combat tanks given by the US to Ukraine will “burn”, deriding the anticipated delivery as an expensive folly.
The Leopard 2 tank, the workhorse of NATO soldiers across Europe, was Germany’s option to send to Ukraine in place of Biden’s first hesitant deployment of the difficult-to-maintain Abrams.
Germany and the United States have finally violated one of the last remaining taboos in Western support to Ukraine: providing weaponry with a primary offensive rather than defensive objective. Germany announced the deployment of further military equipment to Kiev, including heavy artillery, air defence, and multiple rocket launchers.
“This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation,” Sergei Nechayev, the ambassador of Moscow to Germany, expressed his rage at Berlin’s declaration.
The final objective would be to give Ukraine with two Leopard battalions, each consisting of three or four companies, with the first arriving in three to four months.
The engine is the biggest distinction between the Abrams and the Leopards. While the Abrams has a more powerful and complex turbine engine, the Leopard 2 uses a diesel-powered MTU MB 873 engine that is more easier to maintain and more popular in Europe.
According to some analysts, Ukraine may struggle to handle the logistics infrastructure for the Abram tanks due to their uncommon deployment in Europe. Furthermore, the advanced technology will necessitate additional training for the four-person tank.
