The American government is considering making battle tanks available to Ukraine after all.
The Wall Street Journal, referring to US officials, reports that the government is tending to deliver "a significant number" of M1 Abrams to Kyiv.
A decision could be announced as early as this week.
The course correction would be part of an agreement with the German government, which in turn would pledge to supply a smaller number of Leopard II main battle tanks to Ukraine and allow Poland and other allies to use the German-made tanks for Ukrainian forces to deliver.
The agreement would end months of controversy between Washington and Berlin, which has recently threatened to split the Western alliance.
Washington had long discreetly indicated that it would support the supply of Leopard II main battle tanks.
However, Berlin had insisted that it would only do so if Washington itself supplied battle tanks.
The Pentagon had rejected this last week and referred to technical and logistical reasons that speak against a delivery of Abrams tanks.
However, as the newspaper reported, President Joe Biden is said to have promised to check a delivery in a telephone call with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on January 17th.
Last Friday at the meeting of the Ukraine contact group in Ramstein, heated negotiations broke out in which Germany threatened to isolate itself.
A solution has not yet been reached due to German resistance.
At the same time, American members of Congress from both parties had long tried to explore the idea of ending the German blockade by having Washington deliver at least a small number of battle tanks.
Several senators and lawmakers urged Biden to correct his course.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Scholz spoke to Democratic MP Seth Moulton about the idea.
Ukraine has been demanding Leopard II and Abrams tanks for months.
With a view to the expected spring offensive by the Russian armed forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj recently said that there was no alternative to the decision to use main battle tanks.