Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this week that M1 Abrams tanks from the U.S. had arrived in the country as it continues to fight off a Russian Federation invasion.
“Good news from Defense Minister Umerov,” he said in a Monday X post. “Abrams are already in Ukraine and are preparing to reinforce our brigades. I am grateful to our allies for fulfilling the agreements! We are looking for new contracts and expanding the geography of supply.”
U.S. President Joe Biden pledged to send 31 of the tanks to Ukraine in January. This is just one aspect of the aid U.S. has provided to Ukraine since the invasion began early last year.
According to the U.S. Army, the Abrams Main Battle Tank is powered by a 1,500-horsepower turbine engine and has 120 mm main gun as well as special armor. It “closes with and destroys the enemy using mobility, firepower, and shock effect,” said the military branch.
“There is no panacea, no single weapon that can change the balance of power on the battlefield,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told members of the media this week, as reported by multiple outlets, including The Hill. He said the Abrams tanks “will burn.”
However, Zelenskyy remained optimistic this week.
“This month we are planning powerful measures to reinforce the state, and we are already working on the agenda of October and November,” he said in a Telegram message. “Ukraine will be stronger. Ukraine will have more capabilities to defend itself.”
In addition to training Ukrainian troops to use and maintain Abrams tanks, the U.S. military is expected to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets pledged by the Netherlands and Denmark. Just last week, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the latest security package for Ukraine – the 47th tranche of equipment sent by the Biden administration since August 2021.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III also met with Zelenskyy last week, and the pair “discussed Ukraine’s long-term capability requirements and how support from the United States and other partners will help build a more robust Ukrainian force, capable of defending Ukraine for years to come.”
An expert brief published Wednesday by the Council on Foreign Relations said that, “if Western allies fail to send Ukraine the weapons it needs, the odds increase of the war dragging on indefinitely, at a terrible cost to both Ukraine and Russia and a growing risk to the wider world.”
Already, officials in Ukraine have warned that Russia’s invasion has heralded the start of “World War III” and casualty numbers continue to rise, along with concerns about nuclear activity. Per the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 9,701 civilians have been killed and 17,748 injured since the start of the invasion.
The Council on Foreign Relations brief said Ukrainians have “been doing extraordinarily well,” at holding off the invasion. Still, it said the country “needs more of everything” in terms of weapons to continue a successful counteroffensive. At the same time, the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have been cautious to avoid direct conflict with Russia.
“But more than a year and a half of combat should have put those concerns to rest,” said the brief. “The Ukrainians have shown that they will not surrender and that they are effective fighters with the ability to integrate all sorts of Western weapons systems quickly into their own armed forces.”
It also noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been restrained and has not been issuing nuclear threats. If the invasion lasts until next November, the expert said Putin is likely rooting for former President Donald Trump to win and cut off supply to Ukraine – though most House Republicans voted to uphold Ukraine aid Wednesday.
“No matter what happens in the world, no matter what the external conditions are, we must remember that it is only our conditions, our internal attitude to Ukraine, to freedom, to our goals, that will determine when we will achieve our goal,” Zelensky said in his Telegram message. “The main goal – Ukraine’s victory. For Ukraine, strength has no alternatives. And everyone who strengthens the state, everyone who becomes stronger, everyone who helps fight the enemy and achieve results for Ukraine – all of them bring our goal closer.”