President Joe Biden will deliver remarks Wednesday on “continued support for Ukraine,” the White House said, as the US prepares to send tanks to the embattled country.
The remarks are scheduled to begin at 12 pm ET. Watch the event live in the player above.
READ MORE: After US reversal, Germany to provide Ukraine with tanks
US officials said details are still being worked out. One official said the tanks would be bought under an upcoming Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative package, which provides longer-range funding for weapons and equipment to be purchased from commercial vendors.
Much of the aid sent so far in the 11-month-old war has been through a separate program drawing on Pentagon stocks to get weapons more quickly to Ukraine. But even under that program, it would take months to get tanks to Ukraine and to get Ukrainian forces trained on them. It wasn’t clear Tuesday how soon the US will start training Ukrainian troops on the Abrams and roughly how soon they can get to the battlefront.
Until now, the US has resisted providing its own M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing extensive and complex maintenance and logistical challenges with the high-tech vehicles. Washington believes it would be more productive to send German Leopards since many allies have them and Ukrainian troops would need less training than on the more difficult Abrams.
