The US and Germany apparently intend to send tanks to Ukraine after months of delaying the move, which Kiev hopes will shift the combat dynamic.
The administration of US Vice President Joe Biden is anticipated to reveal plans to supply at least 30 M1 Abrams tanks.
Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, apparently also planned to send at least 14 Leopard 2 tanks. On Wednesday morning, he is scheduled to address the parliament.
The revelation, according to the Russian envoy to the US, is “yet another brazen provocation.”
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The alleged move by Germany would “bring nothing beneficial” and “leave a permanent impact,” according to the Kremlin official.
Ukrainian officials say they are urgently in need of heavier weapons, and say sufficient battle tanks could help Kyiv’s forces seize back territory from the Russians.
But until now, the US and Germany have resisted internal and external pressure to send their tanks to Ukraine.
Washington has cited the extensive training and maintenance required for the high-tech Abrams.
Germans have endured months of painful political debate amid concerns that sending tanks would escalate the conflict and make Nato a direct party to the war with Russia.
US media is reporting that an announcement regarding Abrams shipments to Ukraine could come as soon as Wednesday, with unnamed officials cited as saying at least 30 could be sent.
However the timing remains unclear, and it could take many months for the US combat vehicles to reach the battlefront.
German officials had reportedly been insisting they would only agree to the transfer of Leopard 2s to Ukraine if the US also sent M1 Abrams.
“If the Germans continue to say we will only send or release Leopards on the conditions that Americans send Abrams, we should send Abrams,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a Biden ally, told Politico on Tuesday.
Britain has already said it will send Challenger Two tanks to Ukraine.
Poland – one of 16 European and Nato countries that has German-made Leopard 2 tanks – has been pushing to send the vehicles to Ukraine, but under export rules needs Berlin’s permission.
