U.S.-made Abrams main battle tanks will soon arrive in Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said on Tuesday, finally bringing a powerful new weapon to the battlefield to help Ukraine in its slow counteroffensive against Russia.
In his speech to 50 defense secretaries and other senior officials gathered in Ramstein, Germany, for the 15th meeting of the so-called Ukraine Defense Contract Group, Mr. Austin also reiterated that the United States is supporting Ukraine’s pilots on F-16 fighter jets called on the allies to move more quickly to provide air defense and produce ammunition that Kiev’s forces desperately needed on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s main needs right now are air defense, ammunition, 155-millimeter artillery shells and mechanized armor, Mr. Austin said, urging the contact group to “dig deep.”
He reiterated British estimates that Russian attacks on Ukraine’s ports and storage facilities have so far destroyed 280,000 tonnes of grain, which he said was enough to feed 10.5 million people for a year.
Ukraine has eagerly awaited the arrival of the M1 Abrams tanks since the Biden administration agreed to donate 31 of them in January, especially as Ukrainian forces begin pushing through minefields and other obstacles.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defense minister, at the 15th Ukraine Defense Contract Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Tuesday. Photo credit: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix, via Agence France-Presse – Getty Images
At the time, Mr. Austin said only that they would “enter Ukraine soon,” consistent with Pentagon estimates that they would arrive in the fall. American troops have been training Ukrainian crews on the sophisticated tanks at 12-week intervals since the spring, but the tanks had not been delivered as of Monday, a senior U.S. military official said.
The official said some of the tanks would reach Ukraine within days. The rest will be delivered in the coming weeks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been officially announced.
They will be a very welcome but small addition to a ground war that has so far destroyed at least 648 of Ukraine’s tanks — including at least 17 Western-made ones, according to Oryx, a military analysis site that only counts the losses it has visually confirmed.
In the past six months, several European countries have sent dozens of German-made Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine, and Britain delivered at least 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks in the spring.
Ukraine had previously said it needed at least 300 tanks from Western benefactors, but so far it has received only about half that number, said Col. Markus Reisner, who is closely monitoring the war at Austria’s main military training academy.
By comparison, officials estimated that Russia produces about 200 tanks each year.
“That’s the problem,” Col. Reisner said this week. “Either the West delivers, or it will be difficult.”
Mr. Austin said allies have so far sent about $76 billion in weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. He called on nations to continue to provide support to Ukraine beyond the current counteroffensive.
His message may not resonate in his own country as a growing number of Republican officials in the United States have vowed to cut military aid to Ukraine if a Republican wins next year’s presidential election.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Washington estimated that “there are about a few hundred thousand Russian troops left in Russian-occupied Ukraine,” although he later spoke of “two or three hundred thousand.” Russian troops still there.”
The majority of those troops were mobilized last fall and are poorly trained and poorly led, he said. “But they are there.”
He agreed with Mr. Austin’s assessment that “Ukraine’s counteroffensive continues to make steady progress and brave Ukrainian troops are breaking through the heavily fortified lines of the Russian aggression army,” adding: “But Ukraine’s recent successes also depend on critical capabilities from.” provided by the members of this contact group. And our shared commitment will be crucial in the current struggles and in the long road ahead.”
It was the last meeting of its kind for General Milley, who is retiring. At the final press conference, he spoke passionately about the importance of Ukraine to the free world and the willingness of Ukrainians to fight until the liberation of all their territory.
“The Ukrainian people will fight,” he said. “I think Russia has made one of the biggest strategic mistakes Russia has ever made. They invaded a country that was free and independent, and that country will not give up until they too are free and independent again.”
— Lara Jakes and Steven Erlanger