Ukraine withdraws Abrams tanks due to 'inflated expectations': Report
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Journalist Christoph Wanner suggests that the Ukrainian Armed Forces "did not bring what was expected of them."
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A member of the US Army's 1st Armoured Battalion of the 9th Regiment, 1st Division from Fort Hood in Texas walks near Abrams battle tanks after arriving at the Pabrade railway station some 50 km (31 miles) north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, Oct. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are refraining from using the state-of-the-art US Abrams tanks due to inflated expectations, suggested journalist Christoph Wanner, speaking on Die Welt's YouTube channel.
"Probably they did not bring what was expected of them, so now they are temporarily abandoning the still intact Abrams tanks," Wanner indicated, touching on reports about Ukrainian Abrams being pulled back from the front lines.
Sputnik highlighted that American and European military equipment was initially hailed as "wunderwaffe" (wonder-weapon) that would turn the tide for the Kiev regime. However, these expectations collided with the harsh reality: cheap Russian drones can easily turn expensive Western tanks into scrap.
"We cannot live in a world where drones costing a few thousand dollars have free rein to attack $10 million tanks where they are most vulnerable: from above," British newspaper The Telegraph underlined.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has recently confirmed that at least five Abrams tanks have been destroyed.
On April 26, AP reported, citing two US officials, that Ukraine has pulled back the US-supplied Abrams M1A1 after the long-awaited battle tanks have been losing the battle against Russian drones on the frontline.
Last year, Washington agreed in January to send Ukraine 31 Abrams tanks, costing $10 million each, claiming that this would change the situation on the battlefield as Ukraine was preparing for the spring counteroffensive.
However, with Russia's improved use of drones and its introduction of more advanced ones, it became difficult for the Ukrainian armed forces to protect the battle tanks from their attacks.
Ukraine had also received German-made Leopard 1 tanks from several European countries, but they also failed to change the course of the battle, and many have since been destroyed by Russian forces.
Deploying drones into the battle means “there isn’t open ground that you can just drive across without fear of detection,” a senior defense official told reporters.
Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, acknowledged on Sunday that Kiev's battlefield position has worsened after Russian forces captured another village in the east.
In a post on Facebook, Syrsky stated that "the situation at the front has worsened," while also recognizing that Russia possesses "a significant advantage in forces and means," allowing them to make advances amid "heavy fighting".
This comes as the US Senate approved last week a $95 billion bill, with around $61 billion allocated for Ukraine-related funding. But Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte acknowledged that the US military aid package could potentially be the last.
