\n<\/p>\n
American-made Abrams battle tanks will arrive in Ukraine soon, the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, said on Tuesday, finally bringing a powerful new weapon to the battlefield in a bid to help Ukraine advance in its slow-moving counteroffensive against Russia.<\/p>\n
Speaking to 50 defense ministers and other top officials assembled in Ramstein, Germany, for the 15th meeting of what is known as the Ukraine Defense Contract Group, Mr. Austin also reiterated that the United States would train Ukraine\u2019s pilots<\/a> on F-16 warplanes, and urged allies to move faster to provide air defense and produce ammunition that Kyiv\u2019s forces desperately needed on the battlefield.<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s key needs right now are air defense, ammunition, 155-millimeter artillery rounds and mechanized armor, Mr. Austin said, and he asked the contact group to \u201cdig deep.\u201d <\/p>\n He repeated British estimates that Russian attacks on Ukraine\u2019s ports and storage facilities have so far destroyed 280,000 tons of grain<\/a>, which he said was enough to feed 10.5 million people for one year.<\/p>\n Ukraine has been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the M1 Abrams tanks since the Biden administration agreed in January to donate 31 <\/span>of them<\/a>, especially as Ukraine\u2019s forces begin to penetrate minefields<\/a> and other obstacles. <\/p>\n On the timing of, Mr. Austin said only that they would \u201cbe entering Ukraine soon,\u201d comporting with Pentagon estimates that they would arrive by the fall<\/a>. American troops have been training Ukrainian crews on the sophisticated tanks in 12-week stints since spring, but the tanks had not yet been delivered as of Monday, a senior U.S. military official said.<\/p>\n The official said that some of the tanks would reach Ukraine within days. The rest would be delivered in the coming weeks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been formally announced.<\/p>\n They will be a much-welcomed but small addition to a ground war that so far has chewed up at least 648 of Ukraine\u2019s tanks \u2014 including at least 17 manufactured in the West, according to Oryx, a military analysis site<\/a> that counts only losses it has visually confirmed.<\/p>\n Over the last six months, several European countries have sent dozens of German-made Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, and Britain delivered at least 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks in the spring.<\/p>\n Ukraine had previously said it needed at least 300 tanks from Western benefactors, but it has so far received only about half of that number, said Col. Markus Reisner, who is closely monitoring the war at Austria\u2019s main military training academy.<\/p>\n By comparison, officials have estimated that Russia is manufacturing about 200 tanks each year<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is the problem,\u201d Colonel Reisner said this week. \u201cEither the West delivers or it will be tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Austin said allies had so far sent Ukraine about $76 billion in weapons and other security assistance since the start of Russia\u2019s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He urged nations to continue delivering support to Ukraine beyond the current counteroffensive.<\/p>\n