In seizing Mariupol and the land around it, Russian forces essentially established a land bridge from Russia and the Donbas region of Ukraine to Crimea. Russia has controlled Crimea since illegally annexing it in 2014, but before the invasion last year, Crimea's only connection to Russia was a long road and rail bridge. Russia's major victory of the war so far has been its control of Ukrainian territory between the Donbas and Crimea. official who spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak publicly. hopes the shipments of battle tanks could evolve Ukrainian capabilities in the conflict, particularly in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which has been contested since 2014, said a senior U.S.
"The ability for us to train the Ukrainians to conduct these very complex maneuvers is really key for them building combat capability as they push forward with their offensive," said Raphael Cohen, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, in an interview with NPR earlier this month. Ukrainian officials have said that such tanks could be the key to a speedy Ukrainian victory - perhaps even this year. The West has already supplied other armored vehicles and pledged to send still more, including Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker combat vehicles from the U.S., and a newly announced shipment of Challenger 2 tanks from the U.K.īut none represents the combination of accuracy, firepower and mobility of the modern battle tanks made by Germany and the U.S. Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine last February, tanks have been prominent on the battlefield.įor its part, Ukraine has mostly relied on Soviet-era T-72 tanks. Why are tanks important to Ukraine's war effort? Some 60 tons of armor protect their crews from return fire.Īmong the countries that operate the Leopard 2 is Poland, which has pledged to send 14 of the tanks to Ukraine but needed Germany's approval to do so. Ukraine invasion - explained Germany signals it hasn't ruled out sending Leopard tanks to UkraineĮach tank boasts a 44- or 55-caliber 120-mm main gun and a 1,500-horsepower engine that allows it to move as fast as 44 mph, according to Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, the German defense company that manufactures the tank.
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