Joe Biden confirmed this Wednesday with great pomp the shipment to Ukraine of 31 of his powerful Abrams tanks, in a notorious rectification of his initial reluctance to a contribution that his military considered impractical, slow and expensive.
The president himself acknowledged that the construction operation, delivery, crew training and start-up of the vehicles "will take time." And the Pentagon had already leaked that the armored vehicles will not be ready at the front before autumn.
But it is that the primary and most immediate purpose of the shipment is purely diplomatic. It was about convincing Germany to unblock the shipment of its own tanks, the Leopard 2, whose delivery Berlin had made conditional on the US and other allies making matching contributions. The goal was, ultimately, to recover the allied unity against Vladimir Putin.
Not in vain Biden announced the Abrams operation after Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz had confirmed the imminent delivery of a batch of 14 units of the Leopard 2 in what is presented as the outpost of a new European and allied impulse for the defense of Ukraine with the participation of other countries that have this efficient tank, including Spain and Poland.
The American leader appeared in the Roosevelt room of the White House after having spoken by phone with Scholz and with the rulers of France, Emmanuel Macron; Italy, Giorgia Meloni, and the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak. The conversation was a display of “our close coordination on support for Ukraine,” Biden noted.
“The United States and Europe are totally united” as much as Putin has “the expectation that we are going to divide”, he added. “Today's announcement builds on the hard work and commitment of countries around the world,” he said. If Putin's troops "go back to Russia, where they belong," he said, "this war is over now."
And he highlighted the German effort in supporting the invaded country. “I want to thank Chancellor Scholz for his leadership and his strong commitment to our collective efforts to support Ukraine,” Biden said, flanked by Secretaries of State and Defense Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, respectively.
Germany, whose World War II background always conditions and slows down all war-related action, "has really come a step further," the president also noted. "And his chancellor," he insisted, "is a strong voice for unity and a close friend."
Biden further stressed the purely "defensive" purpose of the new military assistance to Zelensky's forces. It is about “helping Ukraine defend itself” by “improving its capacity” on the battlefield; it is about “protecting the Ukrainian land”. But the new assistance "is not an offensive threat to Russia," he stressed.
The manufacture, delivery and start-up of the 31 Abrams, "the equivalent of a Ukrainian battalion", according to Biden, will cost approximately 400 million dollars, military sources indicated. The amount includes the addition of eight M88 armored recovery vehicles that will support the Abrams. The tanks will be built by General Dynamics Corporation, the Bloomberg agency reported, and financed within the Ukrainian Security Assistance Initiative.
The Abrams weigh more than 60 tons and consume about three gallons per mile (7 liters per kilometer) of jet fuel, Pentagon sources said. “They are the most efficient tanks in the world,” said Biden for his part. But also "they are extremely complex to operate and maintain, so we are going to give Ukraine the necessary equipment" to get the most out of them. Training of the soldiers who will drive the Abrams will begin "as soon as possible," he said. The instruction will take place in an undisclosed third country.
The US president only responded to one of the questions he was asked after his appearance this Wednesday. “Why are you making this decision now? Did Germany force you to change your position on sending these tanks?" Was the question. Biden smiled and replied: “Germany did not force me to change my mind. I wanted to make sure that all of us (allies) are united."
