US Sending 31 Tanks To Ukraine; Germany Over 100

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

WASHINGTON/BERLIN (Worthy News) – U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the United States would send 31 powerful Abrams tanks – the equivalent of one battalion – to Ukraine.

His announcement came after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed his country would supply more than 100 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine by allowing other countries to send theirs too.

Germany itself will send 14 pieces of the German-made Leopard 2 tanks. But with the green light from Germany, countries such as Poland and the Netherlands also want to deliver these tanks to Ukraine.

Moscow has already condemned the move.

Vladimir Solovyov, an influential hardline Russian television host, used an explicit when calling Germans Nazis and urged Moscow “to carry out strikes on Germany.”

And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman warned: “These tanks burn like all the rest. They are just very expensive.”

However, back in Washington, President Biden didn’t seem impressed with Russia’s threats.
“Putin expected Europe and the United States to weaken our resolve,” Biden said while announcing the decision to send tanks. “He was wrong from the beginning, and he continues to be wrong,” the president told reporters at the White House on Wednesday

Biden stressed: “We’re also giving Ukraine the parts and equipment necessary to effectively sustain these tanks in battle,” he said. “This is about helping Ukraine defend and protect Ukrainian land. It is not an offensive threat to Russia.”

His move marks a significant policy shift as the Biden administration had argued that the heavy M1 Abrams tanks would be difficult to deliver, expensive to maintain, and challenging for Ukrainian troops to operate.

Kyiv lobbied Western allies to send the military equipment for months, saying it needed more Western tanks to hold its lines and eventually push back Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.  This is “an important step on the path to victory,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “Today, the free world is united as never before for a common goal – the liberation of Ukraine.”

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