Why Sending Leopard 2 & M1 Abrams Tanks to Ukraine is NATO's Grave MistakeSputnik News
Berlin has green-lighted the delivery of Germany's main battle tank (MBT) Leopard 2s to Kiev both from its own stockpiles and those of its allies. For its part, Washington has signaled its own readiness to provide the Ukrainian military with its M1 Abrams equivalent.
"Chancellor Scholz made clear that Germany would not authorize the shipment of German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine unless the US first authorized the shipment of M-1A1 Abrams tanks," David T. Pyne, an EMP Task Force scholar and former US Department of Defense officer, told Sputnik.
Then, on January 24, "the Biden administration finally relented and announced they would send about thirty-one M-1A1 Abrams tanks (which I was trained to fight in as a US Army armor officer back in 1993) to Ukraine."
"I believe that the US and EU have decided to ramp up military assistance to Ukraine because they share Ukraine’s concern that the Russian winter offensive will succeed in recapturing a large amount of Ukrainian territory and they do not want to see Ukraine’s military collapse with Ukraine forced to accept Russia’s peace terms, which they would view as a major defeat, not only for Ukraine, but for NATO itself," suggested the former Pentagon officer.
Pyne believes that Berlin and Washington's decision to raise the stakes by sending their main battle tanks to Kiev is a mistake.
First of all, the Russian military has "tens - if not hundreds - of thousands" of rockets, missiles, and other munitions that it can use to blow NATO's MBTs up.
Several years ago, Leopard 2A4 tanks lost their veneer of invincibility after engaging in fierce firefights against Kurdish and Daesh (ISIS)* fighters in 2016 and 2018. Approximately a dozen or more Leopard 2s were destroyed by IEDs, suicide car bombs, and anti-tank guided missiles. To cap it off neither Leopard 2s nor Abrams M1 have fought so far against a worthy conventional foe which has heavy artillery and air support.
Second, neither 100+ Leopard 2s, nor 30+ M1 Abrams is likely to dramatically reverse the situation on the battlefield.
Prior to the conflict, Pyne calculated that Russia had a 5-to-1 advantage in terms of the number of tanks they possessed over and above European NATO (excluding Turkey). He believes that advantage in main battle tanks will likely prove decisive for Russia during its special military operation in Ukraine.
"The US and EU would have to provide Ukraine with several times more tanks for it to constitute a game-changer for Kiev," Pyne highlighted.
Third, "it will take months for the US and other NATO countries to train the Ukrainian military to operate US M-1A1 Abrams, German Leopard 2 and British Challenger 2 tanks before they can be deployed to Ukraine," according to the former DoD officer.
Fourth, since the Ukrainian military won't be able to operate the M1 Abrams and Leopard 2s without proper training, it cannot be ruled out that the machines will initially be staffed by NATO crews, as Johnson noted in his recent blog post.
NATO battle tanks driven by NATO soldiers in Ukraine would elevate tensions between Moscow and the transatlantic bloc to a new level, according to the security expert. This would rubbish Joe Biden's claims that the US' actions don't constitute a direct threat to Russia. Fifth, announcing an escalation like this allows Russia to do the necessary planning to counter the threat and destroy it, according to Johnson. The security expert expressed bewilderment about NATO's open discussions of Ukraine matters in his blog. According to him, "the NATO crowd" appears to be focused on playing "the public relations game."
"It is an unwise escalation and creates a legitimate reason for Russia to take action to prevent the delivery," said the CIA veteran. "This is an act of war. Most are just too polite to say so."
The US arms maker claims it could supply fighter jets to countries that are willing to give them to Kiev
Any countries that are prepared to provide Kiev with F-16 fighter jets would face no shortage of supply, top US weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin has suggested, stating that it is ready to meet any new demand.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday, the weapons manufacturer's chief operating officer, Frank St. John, said there is “a lot of conversation about third party transfer of F-16s” meaning countries that wish to buy and then re-export their US jets to Ukraine.
Although Lockheed is not directly involved in any talks regarding potential deliveries of military aircraft to Kiev, St. John stated his company nevertheless plans to ramp up production of the fighter planes to get to the point where it will be able to “backfill pretty capably any countries that choose to do third-party transfers to help with the current conflict.”
His statements come after the US and Germany announced this week that they would be sending their heavy tanks to Ukraine. The move has reignited discussion about other weapon transfers as Kiev reiterated its demands for more missiles and military aircraft.
Washington, however, has so far remained reluctant to provide any fighter jets to Ukraine, fearing these could be used to strike Russian territory, further escalating the 11-month-long conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
RT
America’s "reckless neo-colonialist expansionist policy" has put Europe and possibly the world on the brink of a devastating conflict, Russia’s deputy envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has warned. Continued escalation of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine could spiral into an all-out war that would see no victors, Maksim Buyakevich told the OSCE Permanent Council on Thursday.
"The leaders of the US and their NATO client states have come close to a red line," the diplomat warned, citing the US and other western nations’ plans to send dozens of modern battle tanks to Kiev. Buyakevich accused Washington and its allies of "deliberately escalating the military standoff" in Ukraine and of provoking Kiev into "military action against the Russian population."
"This is a straight path into a full-blown conflict in Europe, which absolutely all people living on our continent definitely stand to lose from," the Russian diplomat warned. He also said that the US and the UK, which he described as the "puppet masters" of the ongoing escalation, would hardly be able to "sit it out" either.
The latest decisions on new armed deliveries for Ukraine taken by Western nations only mire them "deeper involved in the armed standoff with Russian troops," Buyakevich said. These decisions could result in further escalation and more intense warfare, which would only lead to more civilian victims and further destruction, he added.
Buyakevich also blamed the US and its "longstanding ambitions for global domination"for the current European security crisis. "The logic of the OSCE principle of indivisibility of security consistently dictates that either there is security for all [OSCE] member states or there is no security for any of them," the diplomat said, adding that the principle had been violated and this collective security had been lost.
Earlier this week, both the US and Germany announced plans to send modern Western tanks to Ukraine. Other NATO nations have already voiced similar intentions. Russia responded by saying that NATO’s "direct involvement" in the conflict in Ukraine was "growing." Moscow previously warned that the West’s continued arms supplies to Kiev risked a direct military conflict between Russia and NATO.
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