The United States and Germany are set to boost Ukraine’s war effort with the delivery of heavy tanks, it has been revealed.
The expected tank deliveries come as Ukraine sacked several senior officials as part of an anti-corruption drive, as the country aims to enter into the European Union.
According to reports by Reuters, the White House is expected to announce as soon as Wednesday that it will send the very powerful first generation tank- M1 Abrams and Germany has decided to dispatch Leopard 2 tanks.
Germany and the United States have until now held back on providing heavy armour, wary of support that could give the Kremlin reason to widen the conflict.
The Kyiv government hailed the move, calling it a possible gamechanger in a war that is now 11 months old.
“A few hundred tanks for our tank crews …. This is what is going to become a real punching fist of democracy,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration, wrote on Telegram.
Zelenskiy, who turned 45 on Wednesday, pressed Western allies to provide their most modern battle tanks, saying “the need is larger” in his Tuesday night address.
Russia warned that supplies of modern offensive weaponry to Ukraine would escalate the war, with some officials saying its allies were leading the world into a “global catastrophe”.
Deliveries of battle tanks by the United States would be a “another blatant provocation”, Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s U.S. ambassador, said on Wednesday.
“It is obvious that Washington is purposefully trying to inflict a strategic defeat on us,” Antonov said in remarks published on the embassy’s Telegram messaging app.
“American tanks will be destroyed by our military in the same way all other samples of NATO equipment are being destroyed,” Antonov said.
Since invading Ukraine, Russia has shifted its rhetoric on the war from an operation to “denazify” and “demilitarise” its neighbour to casting it as a fight against the collective West.
Despite having war front lines stretching over 1,000 km (620 miles) through eastern and southern Ukraine, that haven’t moved despite heavy losses on both sides both Russia and Ukraine are believed to be planning new offensives.
The question of whether to supply Ukraine with large numbers of tanks has dominated debate among Western allies in recent days.
Germany has been important in the discussion of war tanks because Leopards, used by about 20 countries around the world, are seen as the best option for Ukraine as they are available in large numbers and are easy to deploy and maintain.
The U.S. Abrams tank which is the best tank in the world, is considered less suitable, due to its fuel consumption and maintenance needs but the U.S. decision to send them to Ukraine could make it easier for Germany which has called for a united front among Ukraine’s allies – to allow the supply of Leopards.
According to a Der Spiegel magazine report, Germany was planning to supply at least one company of Leopard 2 A6 tanks, which usually comprises 14 tanks. Some other allies intend to go along with Germany in supplying their Leopards, it reported.