The first U.S. Abrams tanks pledged to Ukraine have arrived in the country and are being prepared to send into battle, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Monday.
“Good news from Defense Minister [Rustem] Umerov. Abrams are already in Ukraine and are preparing to reinforce our brigades. I am grateful to our allies for fulfilling the agreements!” Zelensky wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Zelensky added that Ukraine is “looking for new contracts and expanding the geography of supply.”
The Pentagon confirmed the tanks arrived in Ukraine, with a spokesperson saying “the mere presence of Abrams tanks serves as a potent deterrent.”
“By having these tanks in their arsenal, the Ukrainian army can more effectively discourage aggressive actions,” the Defense Department spokesperson told The Hill. “We will continue to focus on what we can do to help Ukraine succeed on the battlefield and protect its people.”
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“SNIFF!!”
Ah, I love the smell of fresh tanks in the morning! Its metallic!
Why in the fuck is Zelensky using a platform ran by a guy that sabotaged his military’s communications, leading to the deaths of countless innocent lives, and further prolonging the conflict?
Because it has the widest reach available.
I mean, there’s the news?
I mean, you’re reading it through the news.
Yes, but how was it propagated?
I agree with the “widest reach” comment but from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/world/europe/us-abrams-tanks-ukraine.html
“Mr. Zelensky offered no details in a post on his Telegram channel, but U.S. officials said two platoons worth of tanks were delivered to Ukraine.”
So NYTimes is quoting U.S. officials and presumably Zelensky’s Telegram.
I expect there are multiple communication channels in use. As long as Twitter allows him to post, it is reasonable to use it. Certain he could/should use more, but in war things get dirty and sometimes you have to do terrible things like “use Twitter”.
It’s not about “using twitter” being a terrible thing, it’s about using a platform controlled by the same exact guy that cut off your communications via starlink that lead to them being unable to stop Russia’s navy from sending missiles toward Ukraine.
If you don’t see the irony in that, I don’t know what else to say.
Oh the irony of it all is clear. Even if Putin owned Twitter and the Abrams tanks were Tesla, it would still make sense to use the website and tanks*.
*(Although you have to assume Zelensky isn’t posting directly to Twitter given location metadata; and if an unsavory person gave you a tank you’d need to REALLY REALLY check it for explosives, spyware, etc.)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The first U.S. Abrams tanks pledged to Ukraine have arrived in the country and are being prepared to send into battle, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Monday.
“By having these tanks in their arsenal, the Ukrainian army can more effectively discourage aggressive actions,” the Defense Department spokesperson told The Hill.
President Biden in January agreed to send 31 Abrams tanks to Kyiv to help Ukrainian troops push back against a Russian invasion.
The decision was a major turnaround — the Biden administration initially argued the tanks would not greatly help Ukraine because they were difficult to maintain and operate and would take months to procure.
The military is also set to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, which the Netherlands and Denmark plan to send to Ukraine.
Washington has provided billions of dollars in aid to Kyiv amid the war, with the administration last week sending Congress a supplemental funding request that includes another $24 billion in military, humanitarian and financial assistance for Ukraine.
The original article contains 284 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 42%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
It’s always very inspiring to see what we spent our money on instead of health care.
Just inspiring.
We already had the tanks to use. They aren’t getting used otherewise. While our military budget is ridiculous, if there were ever a great reason to spend it, supporting an ally to help knock down a world power such as Russia for significantly cheaper than we ever could on our own would be it. We don’t even have any American troops dying in this war.
We need healthcare, yes. But what we gain by helping Ukraine is not insignificant. Also it is the right thing to do, so more points there.
I’m also going to point out that we (US) spend more per person on healthcare than most other countries. There doesn’t need to be a cut to the military to give everyone healthcare, since universal healthcare would probably cost less money
Oh I know, but why make a point on my terms when you can make a point with theirs? You can’t deflect as easily when you are hit head on.
We are finally going back to putting into practice FDR’s vision of being the Arsenal of Democracy.
As long as nobody tries to attack us again, we might just even stay out of the war permanently. I like the idea of helping prevent the takeover of a country by a bunch of other countries with a finger wiggle while saying “ah ah ah, not today!”
Yep. As crappy as a policy it was, Manifest Destiny really helped keep the US secure. I personally think we can afford Healthcare and Arms production, but being a country that helps other countries fight to preserve their autonomy feels pretty good.
Better than spending 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan to just end up with everything back to how it was before.
The US pays more per patient for healthcare than countries with social healthcare.
Socialised healthcare would actually save money and allow the US to buy more tanks.
Do you prefer Lockheed Socialism or Social Lockheedism?
I just call them Death Panels
Lmfaooooo
This is an ignorant take.
I don’t know why you’d say that.
I always feel better about the fact that our people can’t afford to have an injury or illness treated without going into debt, provided I get to see a line of really cool tanks heading off to fight another country’s war.
I said it because we can have both. Not that, you know, maybe we shouldn’t have such a large military budget… But universal healthcare would actually cost less than our current privatized healthcare. It’s efficient. So it is not the cost that’s stopping it from happening.
I said it because we can have both
Canada has universal health care. Their military budget is 26 billion a year.
Better things are possible, at least they would be if we weren’t such warmongers.
