200 Ukrainians practice in Bavaria: Training on Abrams tanks started

Monday, May 29, 2023

200 Ukrainians practice in Bavaria Training on Abrams tanks started

US M1A1 Abrams tanks, which are needed for training the armed forces of Ukraine, are waiting to be unloaded in Grafenwoehr in mid-May.

(Photo: picture alliance/dpa/DVIDS/US Army)

Only after much hesitation did Washington give the green light for the delivery of Abrams tanks to Kiev. Now it’s faster than originally thought. The training in Grafenwöhr, Bavaria, has started.

According to the US Department of Defense, Ukrainian soldiers have started training on American Abrams tanks at the military training area in Grafenwoehr, Bavaria. A spokesman confirmed an article in the US military magazine “Stars and Stripes” in the evening that the exercises on the heavy weapons had started on Friday.




In Grafenwoehr, 200 Ukrainian task forces learn how to operate the tanks, use tactics and receive medical training. By the middle of the month, 31 Abrams training tanks had already arrived in Grafenwoehr. It is also about training the Ukrainian tank crews in their maintenance and thus preparing them comprehensively for their use in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

Austin: Deliveries expedited

At the end of April, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley said at a meeting of the Ukraine contact group at the US air force base in Ramstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, that the US would first deliver training tanks that were not fit for combat. The Abrams tanks intended for the battlefield were still being repaired. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US has accelerated deliveries to allow more armored equipment to be made available to Ukraine in the coming months.

At the end of January, after much back and forth and parallel to the German commitment to supply Leopard tanks to Kiev, the US government announced that it would deliver 31 M1 Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine. Washington stressed at the time that it would be “many months” before they arrived in Ukraine. The US government initially argued that it did not consider the provision of this main battle tank to be sensible for various practical reasons. In the end, however, Washington surprisingly swung around.

Source: ntv.de
mau/dpa


*Data protection




source site