The US authorities are deciding whether to send the M1 Abrams battle tanks stored in military warehouses to Ukraine or to order new ones. An American newspaper writes about it. Breaking the Defense With reference to Stanley Brown, First Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.
“The US Department of Defense has yet to make a final decision on the procurement option,” the article says.
Brown said that initially it was planned to produce 31 M1 Abrams tanks under the new contract, but later Washington offered to transfer the armored vehicles to storage so that Kiev would not have to wait too long.
The diplomat said that a combined supply option is quite possible, in which half of the tanks will be new and the rest used.
“I don’t know which ones Ukraine will get in the end,” he concluded.
Germany had previously announced the delivery of 14 Leopard 2 tanks and allowed other countries to provide similar assistance. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius promised that Berlin would send the latest “leopards” to Kiev “by the end of March”. Britain, Norway, Poland, Slovakia and France also promised Ukraine Western tanks. The United States also agrees to supply 31 M1 Abrams tanks. Kyiv as the first batch waits Get up to 140 tanks from allies.