The Biden administration, contrary to its previous position, is inclined to transfer an as-yet unspecified number of Abrams tanks to Ukraineto overcome German objections to the delivery of German Leopard 2 tanks, writes the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources in the United States. Sky News Arabia reported similar information, citing a Pentagon source, also anonymous.
According to WSJ interlocutors Abrams tank deliveries may be announced this week. Officially, the White House refuses to comment, the publication writes.
According to media reports, the German government has refused to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and to allow their re-export from third countries, such as Poland and Finland, unless the United States in turn agrees to transfer Abrams tanks to Ukraine. So far, it has been categorically rejected by the Pentagon, arguing that Abrams tanks are too hard to maintain and in particular run on jet fuel not diesel like all the others (the US military, however, avoids answering questions about how such demanding vehicles have functioned in Europe so far – ed.).
The position of the administration began to change after President Joe Biden’s phone conversation with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on January 17, according to Wall Street Journal sources. It was in this phone call that Biden agreed to explore the possibility of handing over American tanks to Ukraine, regardless of the Pentagon’s position.
