Only weeks after announcing that it would be sending Bradley fighting vehicles, which are not tanks, to Ukraine, the Biden administration has now announced that it will be sending 31 M1 Abrams tanks, which most certainly are, in the same direction.
The M1 is our main battle tank. Sending 31 of them — only enough to equip a Ukrainian battalion — is a highly positive though mostly symbolic contribution to Ukraine’s battlefield presence. That said, it will take quite a while for them to get there, not least because the Abrams is a highly complex piece of equipment. Ukrainian troops will have to be trained, and the necessary technical support will also have to be in place.
PHOTOS: M1 Abrams Tank
What’s more important is that supplying the M1s will unfreeze the supply of German-made Leopard 2s to Ukraine, as was surely its main point. The Leopard 2, another formidable tank, can be deployed in Ukraine in short order. Germany will be sending 14 and has also agreed that a number of other countries can send their Leopard 2s as well (which it had previously barred). This will be a considerable addition to Ukraine’s tank force, albeit one that falls short of the 300 modern tanks Kyiv has said, optimistically, that it needs to win the war.
Nevertheless, sending the tanks delivers a message to Moscow that the Western alliance, including Germany (along with Turkey, the wobbliest of NATO’s larger member states) remains united behind Ukraine, if necessary for the long haul. More practically, the tanks ought to provide valuable support when the expected major Russian offensives resume in the next few months.
The Ukrainian army has achieved some extraordinary successes in this war, but a clean Russian defeat still looks unlikely. Putin shows no sign of interest in negotiation. That he ought to come to the table is the message that will come rolling in with the Leopards and the M1s.