Ukrainian Soldiers Have Started Training on U.S. Abrams Tanks, Pentagon Says (www.nytimes.com)

Austin III eventually came around to the view that committing to sending American tanks was necessary to spur Germany to follow with its coveted Leopard 2 tanks.

Initially, American defense officials had said that the M1 Abrams tanks would not arrive in Ukraine until next year.

Defense Department officials had previously said that about 31 tanks would be sent to Germany to be used in a training program for Ukrainian troops that is expected to take 10 to 12 weeks.

But since January, when the Biden administration reversed its longstanding resistance and announced that it would send the tanks, senior defense officials have said that they wanted to speed up the timeline.

The start of the tank instruction, led by the 7th Army Training Command, comes a week after President Biden told U.S.