The US and its allies have put pressure on Berlin to become the first continental European NATO power to send large quantities of heavy main battle tanks to Ukraine, despite fears that doing so would escalate tensions with Moscow.
Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark A. Milley met with the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group and other defense ministers on Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
THE GREAT TANK DEBATE: To hear German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tell it, all the United States need do is relinquish some of its older M1A1 Abrams tanks and the floodgates will open with German-made Leopard 2 tanks from various European countries pouring into Ukraine. The U.S. insists it’s not that simple.