The announcement of the start of the Abrams renditions became for Washington not so much another formal statement on the provision of military assistance to Ukraine, but a kind of leverage on Berlin.
Photo: REUTERS
Immediately, four US congressmen representing the Republican Party appealed to the US president with a call to stop spending money “on a conflict on the other side of the world.” Lauren Bobert, Paul Gosar, Eli Crane and Troy Nels, in their letter to the head of the White House, demanded an explanation for the decision to move the Abrams tanks to Kyiv.
“The American people did not elect us to constantly spend their hard-earned money on a conflict on the other side of the world. The current escalation continues to occur at the expense of the American taxpayer… Ukraine is not a NATO ally, and we are in no way obligated to protect its borders, the authors of the appeal noted.
They also claimed that even before the start of the special operation of the Russian troops, the Ukrainian Armed Forces “showed an inability to prevent the theft and sale of military property.”
Thus, from the US treasury, which promised Kyiv 31 tanks, about $ 220 million will go into the pockets of manufacturers. Another tens of millions of dollars will cost the delivery of equipment to Ukrainian territory, as well as the training of crews.
The budget of the entire US defense department amounted to $773 billion in 2022; a special federal fund for the recovery of the US economy from the consequences of COVID-19 – $150 billion. Last year, Americans paid $4.9 trillion in taxes into the federal treasury. The sums are quite large, but the money spent on the supply of tanks could have been used to improve the lives of Americans, and not for “a conflict on the other side of the world,” the congressmen say.
The very announcement of the start of the Abrams deliveries became for Washington not so much another formal declaration of military assistance to Ukraine as a kind of leverage on Berlin, which refused to transfer similar military equipment to the Kyiv regime. And as soon as Germany decided to “share” its tanks with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the American government announced that the Abrams would reach the Ukrainians “in many months”, since the Americans did not intend to withdraw a single such one. tanks. combat service. According to the most conservative estimates, at least six months will be spent on the production of new ones, their shooting.
The Abrams is a main battle tank in service with the US Army and Marine Corps, as well as the armies of several other countries. Depending on the configuration, its cost can reach up to $7 million (excluding shells).
