WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will speed up delivery of M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine by nine months, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces now expected to receive them by autumn, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
“These will be excess hulls in our inventory that we will refurbish, refit” by drawing from existing stocks and Ukraine security assistance “in order to make them combat-ready,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters, declining to specify where the work would occur.
The move underscores the urgency the U.S. and its allies feel in their support of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s sustained missile and artillery barrages.
