Asked Wednesday if U.S.-produced Bradley Fighting Vehicles were under consideration for transfer to Ukraine, President Biden replied in the affirmative. A senior administration official said that Bradleys could be included in a package of weapons to be announced as soon as this week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Earlier Wednesday, France said it would provide Ukraine with an unspecified number of light tanks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The first supply of Western mobile armor is another major milestone in the escalating provision of advanced weaponry to Ukrainian forces, including heavy artillery and long-range precision rocket launchers. It comes just weeks after the Biden administration announced that it would supply Kyiv with a Patriot missile battery, the most sophisticated air defense weapon in the U.S. arsenal, to defend against waves of Russian missile and drone attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure far from the front line.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That line, where the Ukrainian military is engaged in a grueling fight for incremental gains against Russian ground forces, is spread for hundreds of miles along a north-south front in the eastern part of the country. U.S. officials have said the Ukrainians need the ability to conduct combined arms maneuvers, with armored vehicles allowing them to engage the enemy and move forward while under fire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The United States assesses that \u201cthere will be continued fighting along that line \u2026 for the foreseeable future,\u201d a second senior administration official said, with little expectation that combat will slow during the winter months. In a shift from training only small units to operate specific weapons systems, the allies are now pulling thousands of Ukrainian soldiers off the front lines for combined maneuver training in Europe.<\/p>\n
But until now, Ukraine\u2019s allies have rebuffed Kyiv, arguing that the Western armor is too logistically complicated to be useful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Germany has repeatedly turned down Ukrainian requests<\/a>\u00a0for its Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Leopard 2 main battle tanks, largely on grounds that it didn\u2019t want to be the first to provide such weaponry.<\/p>\n Much of the West\u2019s hesitation to send advanced armaments has revolved around reluctance to provoke Russia to escalate the war. Decisions to send systems such as HIMARS, the U.S. precision rocket launchers that were first transferred last summer, have come as the situation on the battlefield \u201cevolved,\u201d the second administration official said.<\/p>\n As expected, each advancement in arming Ukraine has brought charges from Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO is actively fighting a war against Russia. But it is Moscow\u2019s brutality, especially attacks against civilians, that has made the West more forward-leaning, administration officials counter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cLet\u2019s just be crystal clear here,\u201d the second official said angrily. \u201cMr. Putin can claim all he wants that this is a war by the West,\u201d and he is fighting \u201cessentially for [Russia\u2019s] security. \u2026 We all know this is a bunch of BS. This is a Russian war of aggression on Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe are and will continue to provide them the kind of systems to defend themselves,\u201d this official said.<\/p>\n The decision to send armored combat vehicles comes just weeks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urgently appealed for tanks during\u00a0a lightning visit<\/a>\u00a0to Washington late last month. On Wednesday, in his nightly address to the Ukrainian people, Zelensky hailed the French announcement as \u201ca clear signal to all our other partners: There is no rational reason why Ukraine has not yet been supplied with Western-style tanks. \u2026 We must put an end to the Russian aggression this year exactly, and not postpone any of the defensive capabilities that can speed up the defeat of the terrorist state.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cModern Western armored vehicles, Western-type tanks are just one of these key capabilities,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The administration continues to rule out sending even larger Abrams battle tanks, which weigh 55 tons and rely on a turbine engine that guzzles fuel at a drastic rate, said the first official, one of several who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive issue. They are also prone to breakdowns and require extensive maintenance expertise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n