US isn't yet ready to provide Ukraine with Abrams tanks. Espreso

Reuters, citing the US official, reports that the Pentagon is still not ready to meet Kyiv's demands for the supply of M1 Abrams tanks.

“The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment. It's expensive. It's hard to train on. It has a jet engine,” Colin Kahl said.

Kahl's remarks came just before a meeting of senior defense officials from dozens of countries at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany to coordinate military aid to Kyiv.  Pressure is mounting on Germany to send its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, or at least to approve their transfer from third countries.

“But Germany appears to want to tie any such contribution to a US decision on Abrams. A German government source told Reuters Germany would allow German-made tanks to be sent to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia if the United States agrees to send its own tanks,” Reuters reports. 

• Poland is ready to provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard tanks and hopes that other NATO countries will follow its example and manage to assemble at least an armored brigade.

• Germany can make a decision on the transfer of Leopards to Ukraine already this week.

• Finland stated that it can transfer tanks to Ukraine if other countries do it first and a corresponding project of assistance to Ukraine is launched at the European level. On January 17, the country confirmed its readiness to participate in a coalition of states that will transfer tanks to Ukraine.

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a telephone conversation with US President Joe Biden, put forward a condition for the supply of German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine: and this is the transfer of Abrams tanks by America to Ukraine.