US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Friday he has nothing to announce with respect to the provision of Abrams tanks to Ukraine and denied that Germany conditions sending its Leopard tanks to Kiev on the United States providing its own tanks first
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2023) US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Friday he has nothing to announce with respect to the provision of Abrams tanks to Ukraine and denied that Germany conditions sending its Leopard tanks to Kiev on the United States providing its own tanks first.
"I don't have any announcements to make on him once. And you heard the German Ministry of Defense say that they've not made a decision on Leopards," Austin told reporters following the eighth Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Germany. "I think you heard the German Minister of Defense (Boris Pistorius) say earlier today that there's no linkage between providing Abrams and providing Leopards."
Austin added that instead of focusing on Abrams tanks for Ukraine, the United States is currently preoccupied with helping Kiev to prepare for a spring counteroffensive against advancing Russian forces.
On Thursday, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that the United States believes it makes no sense to provide Abrams tanks to Ukraine, considering the high costs associated with their maintenance.
The successes of the Russian military in recent weeks, including the capture of the key Ukrainian town of Soledar in the Donbas region, have intensified discussions in Western ruling circles about the need to supply Kiev with heavy weapons and, above all, tanks. A number of European countries, including Poland, have declared their readiness to send their heavy tanks to Ukraine if other countries follow suit. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has already announced the dispatch of 14 Challenger 2 tanks to the country.
