Ukrainians will start training on Abrams tanks "soon" - Pentagon
US plans to send 31 M1-A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine
Training for Ukrainians on American M1-A1 Abrams tanks has not yet begun, but will begin "relatively soon," a senior U.S. Defense Department official told reporters on Tuesday.
Source: CNN
"Training for the Abrams has not yet begun. We're still working on procuring the equipment, so we haven't started training yet, but I expect that to happen relatively soon," the official said during a briefing.
Overall, the official said, the U.S. has trained more than 7,000 Ukrainian troops since Russia's invasion began more than a year ago.
The US plans to send 31 M1-A1 tanks to Ukraine – the size of a Ukrainian tank battalion.
The U.S. agreed to send the tanks in January after suddenly changing its argument that the Abrams was too complex and difficult to maintain for Ukrainian forces during the war.
The Biden administration caved in to pressure from Germany, which said it would only approve the transfer of its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine if the US agreed to send Abrams tanks as well.
But the US warned that the delivery of tanks to Ukraine would take time.
"We simply do not have an excess of these tanks in our inventory in the United States," said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
Background. As it became known today, the United States announced a new $2.6 billion package of military aid to Ukraine.
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