hello everyone. welcome to the cnn newsroom. today the us and germany announced they are sending advanced level tanks to ukraine. this ends weeks of geopolitical squabbling and introducing what could be a game changer in the russian war in ukraine. it will take months for 31 american abrams tanks to reach the ukraine battlefield and there was no diplomatic arm-twisting behind the decision. they are the most capable tanks on the world and their extremely complex to operate and maintain. we are giving ukraine the parts and equipment necessary to sustain these tanks on the battlefield. .[indiscernible] germany did not force me to change my mind. i wanted to make sure we were all together. germany said it will dispatch 14 tanks to the troops. this move by the most powerful nato members opens the door for other allies to make contributions. the tanks will allow ukraine to go on the offensive and to retake occupied territory germany warns that the approval is extremely
being there for us. let s bring in brigadier general patrick ryder. thanks so much for being here. it was just a few days ago that we heard about how these m1 abrams tanks were too labor-intensive, too complex, too hard to refuel, and too hard to send to ukraine. what changed in the past couple of days? well, it s important to highlight too, that what we have been focused on is the near-term ri requirements for ukraine on the battlefield, the capabilities that they need to be immediately effective to address the things that sam highlighted. however, we do assess that ukraine requires a combination of armored personnel carriers, fighting vehicles, and tanks to be able to have the maneuver capability that will need to be successful, both in the near term and in the longer term in this fight, and so really what you are seeing here is the united states making a commitment, demonstrating its commitment to ukraine for the long-term, combined with the near-term capabilities that
various different countries, mostly from the united states, but they could be used as the defense minister said to christiane amanpour earlier today, it was an iron fist attempt to bash through the defensive lines of the russians. now that could be his disinformation. this is a very long battlefield indeed. it s 800 miles long, at least, spread right across the east of the country. so focusing this armor in one location could be highly effective, but it could be highly risky. the ukrainians were also saying in the same interview, we ve got a shopping list of stuff we need. we need modern aircraft. we need more artillery. they need the equipment to give them the edge because the russians still have dominance in the terms of numbers of people they can throw into this fight and the weaponry that they can use. it s unsfis ophisticated weapon and that s the key aspect for ukraine. sam, thank you very much for