Washington insists on not providing Abrams tanks to Kyiv

America urges Ukraine to postpone a major attack on Russian forces

Ukrainian soldiers on a tank on the front line with Russian forces near Bakhmut.

Reuters

A senior official in US President Joe Biden's administration said that senior US officials have urged Ukraine to delay launching a major attack on Russian forces until the latest US weapons supplies and training are available.

Reuters quoted the official, who spoke to a small group of journalists on condition of anonymity, as saying that the United States stands by its decision not to provide Abrams tanks to Ukraine at this time, amid a dispute with Germany over the tanks.

"Ukraine will get all the help it needs," Biden, who approved a new $2.5 billion arms package for Kiev last week, told reporters at the White House, in response to a question about whether he supported Poland's intention to send German-made Leopard tanks. to Kiev.

The official said the U.S. talks with Ukraine about any counterattack were in the context of ensuring that the Ukrainians would devote sufficient time to first training in the latest weapons provided by the United States.

American officials believe the offensive will be more successful if the Ukrainians benefit from training and supplies of new weapons.

And the United States announced, last Thursday, that it would send hundreds of armored vehicles to Ukraine to use in combat, after a high-level American delegation, which included Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Deputy White House National Security Adviser John Fenner, visited Kyiv in recent days to hold talks with officials. Ukrainians.

The official said the belief in Washington is that Ukraine spent significant resources defending Bakhmut, but there is a high probability that the Russians will eventually drive the Ukrainians out of the city.

He added that if this happens, it will not lead to any strategic shift on the battlefield.

On the other hand, he said that US officials are advising Kyiv to adjust its way of managing the war, away from trying to respond to every Russian attack with an artillery attack, because in the end Moscow will gain the advantage through attrition.

He explained that this is why the latest arms supplies from the United States include armored vehicles, because it will help Ukraine change the way it fights the war.

For his part, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, confirmed that he sees little chance of Ukraine achieving an early military victory in the war.

In response to questions after a conference on Ukraine at the US air base in Ramstein, western Germany, Milley said that from a military perspective, it would be very, very difficult for Kiev to remove Russian forces from every inch of Ukraine and Russian-controlled territory this year.

He added, "This does not mean that it cannot happen, but it will be very, very difficult."

Milley stressed that the Russian war in Ukraine, like many wars before it, must end at the negotiating table.

In addition, the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksiy Reznikov, said that his country's forces will train on the German "Leopard 2" combat tanks in Poland, despite the failure of the Western allies to reach a decision on providing Kyiv with these tanks, and added: "Countries that already have Leopard tanks can To begin the tasks of training our crews ».

The minister expressed his hope that Germany would follow up on its process, conduct its internal consultations, and reach a decision on sending tanks to Ukraine.

In turn, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed his continuation of his struggle to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to his country, and said in a video message that he heard during the negotiations a lot of understanding regarding Ukraine's needs, and expressed his optimism about obtaining them.

He said that it is also necessary to obtain missiles with a longer range in order to liberate Ukrainian lands.

On the ground, the Russian army announced yesterday that it had carried out offensive operations in the Zaporizhia region in southern Ukraine, which allowed it to control several locations.

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