The negotiating marathon, diplomatic mise-en-scenes and political dances, all the Ramstein graters around the main topic of the beginning of the year - the issue of supplying Ukraine with tanks from the Western allies - came to what they could not help but come to.
In a speech at the White House on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden announced the decision taken in Washington to transfer 31 American M1 Abrams tanks to Kyiv.
Exactly this number, equivalent to the composition of one Ukrainian tank battalion - no more and no less.
This is for now.
And then it will be seen.
As if nothing had happened in the same speech, Joe Biden said that the supply of tanks would be carried out solely to protect Ukraine and Washington does not believe that he is crossing the red line in relations with Moscow.
“Today’s announcement is based on the desire of countries around the world, led by the United States of America, to help Ukraine defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
This is not a threat of an attack on Russia,” Joe Biden said.
For American tanks to engage the Russian army on Ukrainian soil, it will take some time - by some estimates, more than one month.
First, a battalion of M1 Abrams still needs to be delivered to the battlefield.
Secondly, it is necessary to train Ukrainian crews - the Americans themselves do not risk participating in battles with the Russians.
Thirdly, there will be a lot of practical issues of operation.
One of them is about the gas turbine engine of the M1 Abrams tank.
Powerful, but uneconomical and requiring high standards of service.
Former adviser to the head of the Pentagon, Douglas McGregor, even calls the idea of sending a battalion of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, which, according to him, have a lot of problems, a "catastrophe."
However, no matter what the retired American colonel and other skeptics say, the point of no return has been passed in the history of the transfer of American tanks to Kyiv.
The rest is a matter of technology in the literal and figurative sense.
The tanks sent to the war with Russia crossed the Ukrainian Rubicon.
The fact that Joe Biden does not recognize this does not fundamentally change anything.
Even before Joe Biden's speech on the tank issue, a breakthrough was achieved in the bargaining with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who, after a meeting at the Ramstein base, did not have enough gunpowder to resist the pressure exerted on him for long.
As a result, the German government announced its readiness to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (note that this is half the number of American tanks transferred to Kyiv).
Having changed his shoes in the air, the recently stubborn Olaf Scholz now makes completely different statements.
Their meaning boils down to the fact that he was initially almost the main supporter of sending heavy armored vehicles to Kyiv.
Following the example of Biden and Scholz, their Western allies are vying with each other in a hurry to contribute to the future imaginary victory over Russia: we, and we, and we are ready to send!
Who can.
With the world on the tank - Kyiv armada, armored shirt.
They do not believe the statements of the Russian leadership, which warns that all this armored vehicles sent to Kyiv will be burned, ground, destroyed.
Or, let's add, captured in the form of war trophies.
Preliminary calculations show that, as of today, the Western allies are ready to transfer about 100 tanks to Ukraine.
Is it a lot or a little?
Let's figure it out.
The tables and infographics published these days give an overall picture and alignment for each country.
If we talk about Leopard 2 tanks, then European countries have a total of 2.5 thousand of them in service and in stock.
That is, on the one hand, a purely symbolic number of tanks is sent to Ukraine so far.
On the other hand, in the tank issue, the ice has broken, moreover, in the dead of winter and during the ongoing Russian offensive in the Donbass.
For Russia, this is bad news, although, we repeat, it is quite expected.
However, what are the Western allies really capable of achieving - or not achieving - in tank history?
Having overcome the confusion and vacillations of the first weeks of January, they again fell into euphoria, having managed to convince themselves that they are still one friendly family in which they can argue and disagree with each other, but in the end, at the family council, they accept the only common correct decision.
After the New Year, this decision is to continue to stick to the same line, hoping to find a magic tool, some kind of miracle weapon that would crush Russia.
As of the end of January 2023, such a weapon in the eyes of the collective West is a tank.
Not just an armored vehicle, which was and remains the main striking force in the conduct of ground operations, but also a word-symbol since the tank battles of World War II.
And until the myth collapsed that in the 11th month of the military special operation in Ukraine they found a way to stop Russia, until pictures of the twisted metal that Abrams and Leopard turn into appeared, the tank euphoria in the West will continue.
This whole story brings to mind Karen Shakhnazarov's film-parable "White Tiger", filmed many years before the conflict in Ukraine, but, as it turns out, became prophetic.
Mass of rollovers.
Let us briefly recall the plot.
Soviet troops are advancing, smashing the enemy, but then the enemy suddenly has a huge invulnerable tank "White Tiger", which shoots our tanks and magically disappears.
The Soviet command to fight the German "White Tiger" creates a special tank - a special model T-34-85.
As a result, the White Tiger is still destroyed by a Soviet tanker who has become immortal.
The semantic climax is the final dialogue between the Soviet officer and the tanker, which takes place after the Victory.
The officer tries to convince the tanker that the war is over and the White Tiger is no longer dangerous.
But, speaking of the White Tiger, the tanker replies: “You are mistaken.
He will reappear."
It is unlikely that the film "White Tiger" was watched by Olaf Scholz.
And here is what Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechaev said.
According to him, the choice of Berlin means the final refusal of the FRG from recognizing historical responsibility for the crimes of Nazism that have no statute of limitations during the Great Patriotic War.
According to the Russian ambassador, “the difficult path of post-war reconciliation between Russians and Germans” is being forgotten.
It turns out that the hero of Shakhnazarov was right - as if he was looking into the water.
After the defeat of fascism in May 1945, almost eight decades later, the White Tiger returns.
The tanks crossed the Rubicon.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.