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US may announce shipment of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine this week — report

The White House refused to comment on this information

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. The US Administration is inclined to ship a significant number of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday citing US officials, adding that the announcement of these shipments could be made this week already.

According to the WSJ, this step would become a part of the agreement with Germany, which includes shipment of a small number of Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev by Berlin itself, as well as Germany’s approval of shipment of these German-made tanks by Poland and other countries.

The White House refused to comment on this information.

Earlier, Sky News Arabia reported citing an unnamed official in the Department of Defense that US President Joe Biden is ready to ship 10 Abrams tanks to Kiev in order to influence Germany, who has not made a decision regarding potential shipments of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine yet.

On January 20, another meeting of Defense Ministers of about 50 countries took place at the Ramstein airbase in Germany, after which Pistorius said that the participants have not made a decision on shipment of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine yet. According to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Warsaw will create a separate coalition of countries, ready to ship tanks to Ukraine, should Germany not agree to that. According to the Prime Minister, Poland has already made a decision to ship a company (up to 14 vehicles) of these tanks to Ukraine, and will act independently, regardless of Berlin’s position.

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