WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is getting closer to sending M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Tuesday, in a key step toward arming Kiev in its efforts to retake its territory from Russia.
President Biden has yet to make a final decision, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions. But if he agrees to send the advanced Abrams tanks, the move would likely spur Germany to follow with its own coveted Leopard 2 tanks, officials said.
The movement to send the Abrams tanks was reported first from the Wall Street JournalShe comes after an irritated altercation last week during a NATO defense chiefs meeting about German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s refusal to send the Leopards, which many military experts believe could be a crucial weapon in Ukrainian hands.
German officials privately insisted they would only send the tanks, which are among the most advanced in the world, if the United States agreed to send its own M1 Abrams tanks. Publicly, American and German officials have denied that the two issues were linked.
Anticipation of a German announcement was high, as various German news outlets reported that Herr Scholz had already decided to send the tanks. The focus was on the Chancellor’s expected speech in Parliament on Wednesday.
Many European countries use German-built Leopards. On Monday, Poland’s defense minister said his country had officially asked Germany for permission to send its own Leopard tanks to Ukraine, and other countries have indicated they would do the same if Germany agrees.
Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto told reporters at a news conference in Kyiv on Tuesday that he had spoken to President Zelenskyy about supplying Western tanks to Ukraine and said the country was considering various options for his participation.
It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the Biden administration to send in the tanks. As recently as Monday, a Pentagon official told reporters that maintaining the Abrams would be difficult for Ukrainian forces, in part because they run on kerosene.
Defense officials have repeatedly used the fuel issue to partially explain why the government was in no rush to send the Abrams tanks to Kyiv. But while it’s true that the tanks have gas turbine engines that burn jet fuel, that’s not the whole story, tank experts say. Abrams tanks, it is said, can continue any guy of fuel, including regular gasoline and diesel.
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Gen. Pat Ryder declined to confirm in news reports Tuesday that the government is close to making M1 Abrams tanks available to Ukraine. “If and when we have something to announce, we will,” he said.
He called the Abrams tank “a very capable battlefield platform.”
“It’s also a very complex ability,” General Ryder said. “And so, as with anything we provide to Ukraine, we want to make sure they are able to maintain it, receive it and train on it.”
He was not referring to the jet fuel issue.
A defense official said, for the sake of anonymity, that it could be months before Mr. Biden reached battlefield deliveries of Abrams tanks. The official said the tanks would be paid for by the Ukraine Security Assistance Package, which provides Ukraine with funds for weapons.
Ukraine’s western allies have provided increasingly sophisticated weaponry to help Kyiv defend against Russian invasion, but have been reluctant to send heavy offensive weapons for fear of provoking Moscow.
Ukraine has been asking for heavily armored Western tanks for months, with officials claiming that the Soviet-style tanks Ukraine now has are insufficient to help Kyiv retake its territory.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Lauren McCarthy contributed reporting.
