{"id":272876,"date":"2023-09-02T05:16:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T05:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=272876"},"modified":"2023-09-03T09:52:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T09:52:01","slug":"ukrainians-complete-training-on-abrams-tanks-as-kyiv-makes-battlefield-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=272876","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainians complete training on Abrams tanks as Kyiv makes battlefield gains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lara Seligman \u2013 Politico Aug 31, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n

A group of Ukrainian soldiers have completed a training program on U.S. M1 Abrams tanks, a lethal new weapon officials hope can help Kyiv break through Russia\u2019s entrenched defenses.<\/p>\n

Around 200 Ukrainians have practiced on trainer tanks at U.S. Army training areas in Germany, said spokesperson Col. Martin O\u2019Donnell. The soldiers recently completed one of the last phases of the program, a combined arms, battalion force-on-force exercise at Hohenfels Training Area.<\/p>\n

The soldiers are working to ensure they stay proficient on the tanks at Grafenwoehr Army base in Germany until the tanks are ready for the battlefield, O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is slated to receive the first ten of 31 promised Abrams tanks in mid-September, according to a Defense Department official and another person familiar with the discussions, who like others interviewed for this story was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive plans. Western officials hope the arrival of the tanks will give Kyiv\u2019s forces the edge they need to push through Russia\u2019s fierce defenses in their grueling counteroffensive.<\/p>\n

Ten of the 70-ton tanks are currently in Germany undergoing final refurbishments, said the DOD official. Once that is complete, they will be shipped to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. is committed to expedite delivery of the 31 tanks to Ukraine by the fall,\u201d said O\u2019Donnell. He declined to provide a specific timeline.<\/p>\n

The news comes as U.S. and Ukrainian officials said that Ukraine had penetrated Russia\u2019s main defensive line for the first time in the country\u2019s southeast, raising their hopes that Ukraine may be able to begin retaking significant territory. Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley spoke Thursday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, to discuss the war, according to a press release from Milley\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

A second Defense Department official cautioned that while the move marks a \u201ctangible success\u201d in Ukraine\u2019s so far slow-moving counteroffensive, it should not be seen as a \u201cbig breakthrough.\u201d Russian forces remain entrenched along a 600-mile front line, and Ukraine\u2019s soldiers must force their way through fields laden with mines and hand-dug foxholes.<\/p>\n

U.S. officials hope that the Abrams tanks, when they do arrive, can help give Ukraine an edge as it struggles to retake territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cTanks are very important, both to the defense and the offense,\u201d said Milley in June<\/a>. \u201cUpgraded modern tanks, the training that goes with it, the ability to use them, will be fundamental to Ukrainian success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Abrams is \u201cone hell of an armored vehicle,\u201d said a third DOD official. But \u201cit\u2019s not a silver bullet. Ultimately, it\u2019s Ukraine\u2019s determination to break through that matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Abrams tanks are part of a force of roughly 300 tanks pledged by Western allies, including Leopard 2 tanks from Spain and Germany, Challenger tanks from the UK, and light Leclerc tanks from France.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t be deceived by the Politico headline, the Ukrainians have made minimal gains on the battlefield. What\u2019s significant is the fact that the US has pledged to provide Ukraine with 31 Abrams tanks, the first of which will be delivered in the coming weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":189466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272877,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272876\/revisions\/272877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/189466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}