U.S., Germany to provide heavy battle tanks to Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that his country would provide Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries to do the same.  Later that day, the United States said it would supply 31 M1 Abrams to help Ukraine. U.K. authorities earlier decided to send its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine. Poland, Finland, and other European countries last week had asked Germany for permission to send the German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine as a third party last week. The goal is to provide a combined 62 tanks to Ukraine from Europe. 

Why was there so much hesitation? Germany did not want to face nuclear-armed Russia without international support, said Ekkehard Brose, the head of the German military’s Federal Academy for Security Policy. Germany is acting in “close coordination” with its international allies, Scholz said, while also supporting Ukraine. The Ukrainian troops need heavy battle tanks to punch through the Russian front lines, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. 

Dig deeper: Read Evgeny Kosykh’s report in World Magazine on who’s fighting Russia’s battles.