Germany confirms this is succesful of perhaps ship tanks to Ukraine, U.S. might perhaps moreover just follow scoot smartly with

breaking news this morning the German government confirms it will send its leopard battle tanks to Ukraine to Aid in the war against Russia now three senior U.S officials have also told NBC news that America is preparing to follow a suit and send its own Abrams tanks that would be a reversal for the bide.

Administration which just days ago had been arguing against the move but those officials stress that decision to send the tanks is not yet final NBC News foreign correspondent Ralph Sanchez joins us now from Harkey of Ukraine with the latest so Ralph walk us through these moves from Germany the potential move from the U.S why are they deciding.

To go ahead with these plans Joe this is about these two countries taking this step together both Germany and the US for different reasons had been reluctant to send tanks up until now the American position was the U.S M1 Abrams tank not practical for the Ukrainian Battlefield the Germans were concerned about provoking the Russians.

But it does now appear there has been a coordinated decision to move forward to take this major step we heard from the German Chancellor Olaf Schultz earlier today Germany is sending 14 of those leopard battle tanks and they are also going to train Ukrainian crews in Germany to use them now 14 German Leopard tanks probably a couple of dozen.

American M1 Abrams that's not going to change the tide of the war on its own but this decision clears the way for other NATO allies to start providing their leopard tanks there are about 2 000 of them across Europe and Ukraine hopes they will be on the battlefield here in the east of the country soon wrap you mentioned fears about provoking.

Russia do we know how this news is being received in Russia well not well as you can imagine Joe we are hearing some familiar rhetoric from the Russians on the one hand they are kind of dismissive they are saying we will destroy these NATO tanks just like we've destroyed other bits of NATO equipment that have been sent to the.

Battlefield but they are also warning that this is a major escalation The Narrative that the Kremlin is selling to its own people in Russia is that Russia is now fighting essentially a proxy war against the combined might of NATO here in Ukraine and they are not happy about this they also are fond of Nazi references and they're making the point.

That the Germans are the ones sending these tanks here to Ukraine Jeff thanks for watching our YouTube channel follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the NBC News app

Sharing is caring!