U. S. and EU responded to Ukraine for military assistance
2023.01.25 06:34
U. S. and EU responded to Ukraine for military assistance
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – Germany made the announcement on Wednesday that it would send heavy tanks to Ukraine. The United States was also on the verge of doing the same, which Kyiv hailed as a big military boost and Moscow said was a stupid provocation.
Kyiv has been requesting Western main battle tanks for months. These tanks would provide its forces with the firepower, protection, and mobility they need to break through Russian defensive lines and sweep through invaded territory.
“A few hundred tanks for our tank crews… This is what is going to become a real punching fist of democracy,” wrote Andriy Yermak on Telegram, the head of the administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
With the intention of providing Ukraine with two complete battalions, Germany announced plans to send an initial company of 14 Leopard 2 tanks from its own stocks and to approve shipments by allies who field them. There are typically three to four companies in a battalion.
Washington, according to two American sources, would also supply dozens of its Abrams M1 tanks.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, stated that any American tanks sent to Ukraine would “burn like all the rest.”
Germany has produced thousands of Leopards, which are used by twenty different armies worldwide. Poland and Finland have already pledged them if Berlin gives their go-ahead, and a number of other nations are expected to do the same quickly. France is considering sending its Leclercs, and Britain has already offered a company of similar Challengers.
Former U.S. ground forces commander Mark Hertling predicted that Leopards could be on the Ukrainian battlefield as soon as March, while American tanks, which require more logistical support, could be more than eight months away.
According to Moscow, supplying Ukraine with cutting-edge offensive weapons will only serve to prolong the conflict and delay what it claims will be its inevitable victory. Deliveries of American battle tanks, according to Russia’s ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, would be “another blatant provocation.”
On the Telegram messaging channel of the embassy, Antonov stated, “It is obvious that Washington is purposefully trying to inflict a strategic defeat on us.” He made this statement.
Russia has increased its threats over the past week, with Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Putin, declaring openly that a nuclear power facing defeat could use nuclear weapons.
Western officials who are in favor of sending the tanks have said that Moscow’s threats are bluster and that Russia is already at full war in Ukraine and has been stopped from attacking NATO or using nuclear weapons.
The decision to send tanks removes one of the last Western support taboos in addition to its military significance: against giving weapons that are mostly used for offense rather than defense.
Allies promised fresh military aid worth billions of dollars just last week, but they didn’t send tanks because some politicians in Germany were especially afraid of provoking Moscow.
Russia has destroyed entire cities, displaced millions of people, and killed thousands of civilians in the 11 months since its invasion.
It claims that its “special military operation” was required to stop a security threat posed by Ukraine’s ties to the West, which it now portrays as an attempt to destroy. Ukraine and its Western allies claim that it never threatened Russia and that the invasion is a war of aggression meant to control its neighbor and take land.
Last year, Ukraine defeated Russian troops on the outskirts of Kyiv and drove them out of occupied areas.
However, despite declaring Ukraine to be forever a part of Russia, Moscow still controls roughly one sixth of the country. Ukraine asserts that it will not cease fighting until it regains complete control of its territory, and the only way to guarantee peace is for its allies to assist it in winning.
Despite heavy losses on both sides, who are believed to be planning new offensives for the spring, the front line has been largely frozen in place for two months.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, stated that Russia was intensifying its efforts toward Bakhmut, an industrial town in eastern Ukraine where thousands of troops have been killed in trench battles that have lasted for months and are referred to by both sides as a “meat grinder.”
According to the governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region who had been installed by Russia, Wagner contract militia units from Russia were currently moving inside Bakhmut.
According to Denis Pushilin, who was quoted by the TASS news agency, “fighting is already taking place in the outskirts and in neighbourhoods that until very recently were held by the enemy.”
Western military experts claim that Russia’s focus on Bakhmut has made its forces vulnerable by wasting manpower on a costly battle for a small strategic target. However, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington stated that Ukraine’s ability to profit had been hindered by the sluggish pace of Western arms supplies up until this point.
When Germany replaced its defense minister last week, the issue of whether to send heavy tanks became a contentious domestic political issue and dominated debate among allies over the best way to support Ukraine for weeks.
The fuel-hungry turbine-powered Abrams are more difficult to deploy and maintain than Germany’s Leopards, which are available in much greater numbers than other heavy tanks in Europe.
