(CNN) — US President Joe Biden announced, on Wednesday, that he plans to send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, and said in statements at the White House that this American support aims to help Kyiv “defend its sovereignty,” and made it clear that Sending tanks does not mean that they pose an “offensive threat to Russia.”
Biden’s announcement came after Germany confirmed earlier Wednesday that it would send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
It seemed that Washington and Berlin were in a confrontation, as German officials indicated that their country would not send its tanks to Ukraine unless the United States sent tanks for its part.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN’s Kate Baldwin on Wednesday that the tanks would “significantly enhance” Kyiv’s combat capabilities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked his country’s Western allies for modern tanks as Kyiv prepares for a major Russian counteroffensive expected in the spring.
With both the United States and Germany pledging to send tanks to Ukraine, other countries, especially those with German-made tanks, have announced contributions to the battlefronts.
CNN cannot confirm the total number of German tanks to be delivered, but pledges made by several countries so far mean that the Ukrainian military is ready to receive dozens of tanks.
Germany’s main ruling party said on Wednesday that Ukraine’s western allies would send a total of about 80 Leopard 2 tanks.
Sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine will provide a modern and powerful military mechanism before a possible Russian attack, and the tanks will be a blow to the Kremlin, which sees a growing campaign to provide Ukrainian forces with high-tech combat systems as the war approaches its first year.
Senior US officials considered that sending tanks to Kyiv as an investment in Ukraine’s “long-term capabilities”, an indication that the US administration believes that the 11-month-old war will extend into the future.
Ukraine hopes that the new tanks will help restore territories occupied by Russia, including Donbass, and this could also include Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
But there are challenges about the tanks. Senior Biden administration officials said the Abrams tanks would take months to reach Ukraine and would require extensive training for Ukrainian forces on how to operate them, while German tanks would arrive in the short term.
