“Arming Ukraine in order to repel the Russian aggression is not some kind of decision-making exercise. In an address, Volodymyr Zelenskiy added it was “in your power” to at least make a decision in principle about tanks. The US argues that its Abrams tanks, which run on jet engines, are fuel-inefficient and so difficult to supply, but earlier this week the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, directly asked the US president, Joe Biden, to send US tanks in return for sending its own Leopard tanks. Steffen Hebestreit, a German government spokesman, said Scholz was not making the decision on the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks dependent on whether or not the US delivered its M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. But in the end that too was dashed at Friday’s meeting of 50 western defence ministers in the Ukraine international contact group.

Source: The Guardian January 21, 2023 17:16 UTC