“Allies have enough tanksIn his daily address on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said again that Ukraine needs to defeat enemy troops, once again calling on the West to provide it with heavy tanks. At the same time the magazine Spiegel announced an impressive U-turn by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who would finally accept the delivery of German Leopard 2 tanks and Finland to send their own German-made tanks in support of Ukrainian forces.
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Heavy tanks differ from light tanks in their mass, from 40 to 70 tons, and firepower. For example, the AMX-10 RC light armored vehicles promised by France, weighing about twenty tons, do not fall into this category. Major heavy tanks include the French Leclerc, the German Leopard, the American Abrams, the British Challenger, and the Russian T-72/T-80/T-90. How many were promised, how many will be served? President Zelensky said on Tuesday that “the needs“were”larger than five, ten or fifteen chariots“. According to the highest-ranking officer of the Ukrainian army, General Valery Zaluzhny, quoted by the Ukrainian army New York TimesAt least 300 tanks will be needed to mark a turning point on the front.
About fifty heavy tanks already promised, and soon a hundred
At this stage, the British have already promised Ukraine 14 “Challenger 2”, and the Poles – 14 “Leopard 2”, initially also 14 “Leopard 2” from the shares of the Bundeswehr. It will be the A6 version of this tank, more modern than the A4/5 promised by Warsaw. At least that’s 52 firm promises of Western heavy tanks.
In addition, Berlin announced on Wednesday that it aims to quickly create two Leopard 2 battalions for Ukraine. A tank battalion consisting of four companies in Germany, that’s 56 units, so that would be a commitment of one hundred Leopard 2s.
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But that’s not all. The United States will also deliver 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine to help fight a Russian invasion, a senior US official said on Wednesday, after weeks of disagreement.
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The same applies to Finland, Spain and Norway, which have expressed their willingness to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev as soon as Berlin approves, without giving any details. On the part of France and its Leclercs, Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that “nothing is ruled out” and that decision “has been evaluatedcollectively“.
Several hundred possible delivery Leopard 2
These promises actually depend on the reserves of heavy tanks of different states. What is the state of play in Europe? The Leopard 2 tank is the most common, with about 1,700 operational units in Europe, supplemented by a reserve of about 500 Leopard 1s. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Leopard 2s are distributed among the German (284), Austrian (56), Danish (48), Finnish (100), Greek (353), Hungarian (48) armies. Swedish (120), Spanish (327), Portuguese (37) and Polish (247).
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In total, if 10% of the European fleet were involved in Ukraine, that would be a total of about 200 tanks. By contrast, the British and French fleets are 200 Challenger and 200 Leclerc tanks respectively, a limited supply that should not allow mass delivery.
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THOMAS SAMSON/AFP
Across the Atlantic, Washington has 2,600 operational Abrams M1s, some of which are already deployed in NATO countries. If the arsenal is substantial, the United States has so far used logistical complexity to justify its reluctance to commit to any supply. “Abrams tank (…) requires complex training, it has a jet engine. I think it consumes 11 liters of kerosene per km“, argued the Pentagon’s number three, Colin Cull. “Not the easiest storage system“.
About 300 Soviet tanks have already been delivered
In fact, the supply of heavy tanks by neighboring countries is not unprecedented. Since the beginning of the conflict, several states allied with Ukraine have provided the Ukrainian army with Soviet-made tanks to help defend it against Russian offensives. In total, about 300 tanks of this type were delivered, including the T-72, the best-selling tank in the world.
By April, Poland had provided about 200 T-72 tanks. At the end of November, with the support of the USA and the Netherlands, the Czech Republic tracked down 90 T-72B tanks. For its part, Slovenia said in September it had signed a contract to send 28 M55S tanks, a heavily upgraded version of the T-55 designed in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, to Ukraine.
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850 Ukrainian tanks at the dawn of the conflict
When the conflict began on February 24, Ukraine could count on about 850 more or less modern tanks, knowing that France, by comparison, had only 224 tanks.
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According to the independent website Oryx, Kiev has lost about 449 heavy tanks since the beginning of the war. Paradoxically, Russia is one of its main contributors to compensate for these losses, having captured 543 tanks from the enemy since the beginning of the conflict. Conversely, 144 Ukrainian tanks were reportedly captured by the Russians. These numbers, calculated from certified images, do not necessarily represent all losses.
For the Russians, superiority in quantity, not quality
In comparison, Russia was counting on its outbreak.special action» overwhelmingly superior to Kiev, operating around 2,500 to 3,000 T-72s, T-80s and T-90s. According to Estonia’s intelligence chief, Moscow has too‘“about 9,000 tanks in repair and storage facilities“, which in terms of operational potential can allowat least 3000 additional tanks“at the front. “VS:e, which is obviously a very, very large number and poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to other neighboring countries.Colonel Margot Grossberg commented in December. However, Russia would lose from February 24.60% of his battle tank’s total resourcesHervé Blejean, director of the General Staff of the European Union, estimated at the beginning of January. One thing is certain, Russia has lost at least 1,600 tanks out of the 2,500 to 3,000 it had at its launch.special action“.
But quantitative considerations are not the only determinants. Western tanks, which the Ukrainians rely on, have capabilities that can give them an advantage over Soviet tanks. The Leopard II is particularly known for its ease of use, from maintenance to access to ammunition. Meanwhile, Russia, for its part, has only a few hundred of its most modern operational tanks, the T-90M. The Kremlin responded to German promises on Wednesday by repeating its threats to Western countries. they “overestimate the potential that (tanks) can give to the Ukrainian armyKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists about it. “These tanks will burn like any other“, he added.
Source: Le Figaro
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.