President Biden announced Wednesday that the United States will be sending 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the equivalent of one Ukrainian battalion, to assist their forces in defending the territory they hold and to prepare for additional counteroffensives. The decision is a reversal for top U.S. officials, and is tied to Germany agreeing to send its Leopard 2 tanks to the country.
The U.S. is also providing 500 armored vehicles in addition to the tanks, as part of the support package. Biden shared, “Together with our Allies and partners, we’ve sent more than 3,000 armored vehicles, more than 8,000 [800] artillery systems, more than 2 million rounds of artillery ammunition, and more than 50 advanced multi-launch rocket systems, anti-ship and air defense systems, all to help counter Ukraine’s [Ukraine counter] brutal aggression that is happening because of Russia.”
The Daily Mail reported that “Biden called the M1 Abrams tanks ‘the most capable tanks in the world’ and said they would ‘enhance Ukraine’s capacity to defend its territory to achieve its strategic objectives.’ He added that the Ukrainian military would use the armor to ‘liberate their land.’”
Sending Ukraine the Abrams tanks, which Biden admitted were “extremely complex to operate and maintain,” was not an easy decision. In fact, according to MarketWatch:
The U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, Colin Kahl, told reporters a week ago that the Abrams might not work well for Ukraine’s military, noting challenges like the fact that it uses jet fuel.
“I just don’t think we’re [there] yet,” Kahl said at that time. “The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment. It’s expensive, it’s hard to train on, it has a jet engine.”
Biden’s decision to send the tanks came as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Wednesday that his country would provide Ukraine with a company of 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks as a first step. Britain will send 14 of its Challenger 2s.
A Voice of America report shared:
The M1 Abrams and the Leopard 2 are both considered “main battle tanks,” which signifies that they can play multiple roles on the modern battlefield. Experts told VOA that they are two of only three models of tank that rank as the most advanced in the arsenals of the U.S. and its NATO allies, the other being the British-made Challenger 2.
Reuters reported that Russia reacted to the announcements by affirming their accusations of a proxy war being waged against them:
“The course of the special military operation in Ukraine shows that the U.S. and NATO intend to continue making efforts to drag out this military conflict and have become its participants,” Nikolai Patrushev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and secretary of his Security Council, was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Interfax news agency quoted him as saying that “even with the end of the ‘hot phase’ of the conflict in Ukraine, the Anglo-Saxon world will not stop the proxy war against Russia and its allies.”
Anticipating Russia’s reaction, Biden said,
Today’s announcement builds on the hard work and commitment from countries around the world, led by the United States of America, to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity.
That’s what this is about: helping Ukraine defend and protect Ukrainian land. It is not an offensive threat to Russia. We are — there is no offensive threat to Russia.
If Russian troops returned to Russia, they’ll be there for — where they belong, and this war would be over today.
What Biden failed to mention was the cost of continuing support to Ukraine. American taxpayers have now provided “$50 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.” What’s even more concerning is the reported corruption of recently ousted top Ukrainian officials as billions of dollars continue to flow into the country.
With the escalation of supporting Ukraine with state-of-the-art weapons of war, many people are fearing the worst. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said Tuesday, “The time on the Doomsday Clock moved forward from 100 seconds to midnight to 90 seconds to midnight.”
The war in Ukraine is in its eleventh month. No one knows what the future holds, but what we do know is that, as the West increases its involvement in this proxy war, the worst-case consequences could be devastating and everlasting.
In his February 2022 article Russia vs. Ukraine: Is It Our Fight?, Charles Scaliger wrote:
A nuclear World War III would be an unprecedented calamity not only for the lives of millions of people, the fabric of modern civilization, and the rest of life on Earth, but also for future generations who would likely face permanent bondage under a world government in which an independent America was only a distant memory. American leaders have no sound moral or strategic interest in the broils of eastern Europe, and it is deadly folly to risk nuclear war — and its abyssal aftermath — by meddling in quarrels whose moral contours are unclear and whose outcome ought to be none of our business.
