Frank talks and frustration: How the U.S. got to yes on Abrams tanks
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[January 26, 2023]
By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Steve Holland and Humeyra
Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They are expensive and hard to maintain. They run
on jet fuel. And they are difficult to operate.
The U.S. Pentagon presented its best arguments, publicly and privately,
against sending Abrams - its most advanced battle tanks - to Ukraine.
But President Joe Biden ultimately decided to approve the delivery of 31
tanks on Wednesday, which senior U.S. officials said came from the need
to maintain unity among allies backing Ukraine.
Biden's decision capped a week of failed diplomatic efforts to get
Germany to send its main Leopard battle tank to Ukraine without a
comparable move from Washington.
The reversal ended a rare public division in the alliance that
Washington officials feared Moscow could exploit.
Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Biden and European
allies have sought to present an image of harmonious support for Ukraine
despite occasional disagreements.
The billions of dollars worth of Western weaponry funneled into the
country, Western allies said, were tangible signs that Russian President
Vladimir Putin had failed to divide the West as he pressed his nearly
year-old invasion.
But the split over German tanks undermined those efforts, raising
questions about whether the West would fall short in providing the heavy
armor that Kyiv says it needs to mount a spring counteroffensive.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Berlin last Wednesday to
convince Germany's new defense minister Boris Pistorius that Germany
should at the very least allow countries like Poland to re-export their
Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
"The secretary will be pressing the Germans on this," one senior U.S.
defense official said at the time.
The trip, which included a day-long meeting at Ramstein air base in
Germany, failed to achieve a breakthrough and left U.S. officials
frustrated.
TANK DELIVERIES LIKELY MONTHS AWAY
In Washington, senior U.S. officials had privately expressed
consternation at Germany's attempts to tie the Abrams tanks to delivery
of the Leopards.
One senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
told reporters that U.S. officials did not think the Abrams tanks were a
net positive for Ukraine because they are difficult to operate and
maintain.
But Germany did not want to go it alone, the official said, prompting
the Americans to wonder whether there was deeper reason in Berlin having
to do with the symbolism of German tanks rolling in eastern Europe for a
country still scarred from starting World War Two.
At the same time, U.S. officials were trying to answer the clamor from
Ukraine for tanks while impressing on the Ukrainians that there are
limits to assistance in the long haul.
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![](../images/012623PIX/news_n27.jpg)
U.S. Army M1A1 Abrams tank fires during
NATO enhanced Forward Presence battle group military exercise
Crystal Arrow 2021 in Adazi, Latvia March 26, 2021 REUTERS/Ints
Kalnins/File Photo
The Germans refused to budge. As Austin landed in Berlin, German
officials told reporters that Berlin would allow German-made tanks
to be sent to Ukraine if the United States agreed to send its own
tanks.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had stressed that stipulation several
times behind closed doors. He also discussed the issue in multiple
phone conversations with Biden this month, senior Biden
administration officials said.
That led to media coverage of divisions between the United States
and Germany that raised eyebrows back in Washington, where officials
thought they had been clear against sending Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
U.S. officials argued that American contributions to the Ukraine war
effort had been substantial with Bradley Fighting Vehicles, air
defense systems, millions of artillery rounds and other potent
weaponry. Each Abrams tank costs more than $10 million, including
training and sustainment.
"The headline is not about whether we've come to agreement or not
with Germany on tanks. The headline is the United States has
provided $5 billion of security assistance to Ukraine in the last
month," one senior official said on Friday.
In public, the United States took the high road, insisting it was
Berlin's sovereign decision to make.
But at one point during Austin's trip, Washington asked Berlin to
stop publicly tying Germany's approval of the Leopard tanks to the
Biden administration sending Abrams tanks.
The American pressure appeared to have worked, at least for a while.
Pistorius, the German defense minister, told a TV interview on
Thursday that he did not know of any requirement that Ukraine
receive U.S. and German tanks simultaneously.
On Friday, a German government spokesperson even said the delivery
of Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine was never tied to the United
States making a similar move.
But back in Washington, officials were looking for "creative
solutions." However, the issue came to a surprise close on Wednesday
when Biden announced his approval alongside a similar German
announcement.
The compromise appears to have been a decision to send Abrams not
now, but sometime down the road - months from now.
Despite the uncertain timeline, Ukraine has welcomed the decisions.
"It's an important step on the path to victory," Ukraine President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Steve Holland and Humeyra
Pamuk; Editing by Mary Milliken and Josie Kao)
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