At the meeting of the contact group on Ukraine at the German military base in Ramstein, it was decided that the training of the Ukrainian army to work on the American Abrams tanks would begin in the coming weeks. This was written by the Associated Press.
31 armored vehicles will be involved in the training. The tanks will be delivered at the end of May to the Grafenwehr training ground in Germany, and training will begin shortly thereafter. The Ukrainian Armed Forces tanker training program is designed for 10 weeks, during which 250 cadets will learn to use American equipment. Some of them will be involved in the management of armored vehicles, while others – in their repair. Thus, American tanks under the control of trained Ukrainian soldiers will appear on the front line no earlier than August.
After the first stage of training, Ukrainian tankers can also take a course where they will be trained to fight and maneuver on the Abrams.
The decision to send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine was made by the US presidential administration earlier this year. According to sources, these deliveries of armored vehicles cost US taxpayers $400 million.
Meanwhile, a batch of Abrams tanks have been delivered to Helsinki in preparation for the NATO exercises, which will be hosted by Finland for the first time as a new full member of the Western military bloc. The maneuvers, called Arrow 23, will begin May 1 at the Pohjankanka training ground and will last approximately two weeks.
Photos used: Mark Stroud/wikimedia.org
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