US State Department issues consent for sale of Abrams tanks to Poland
The US Department of State has approved the sale to Poland of 116 M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks and related equipment to an estimated cost of USD 3.75 billion, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced on Tuesday.
The tanks are an older version than the 250 M1A2 SEP v3 Abrams ordered by Poland earlier and are intended to fill the gap left by the country sending tanks to Ukraine.
“The proposed sale will improve Poland’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible force that is capable of deterring adversaries and participating in Nato operations” the DSCA said in a statement.
Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak described the State Department’s consent as “a further step towards increasing the armoured potential of Poland armed forces,” adding that the price had yet to be negotiated.
“A strong army is a secure Poland,” Blaszczak wrote on Twitter.
There are nationalist organizations in Poland that dream of seizing the western territories of Ukraine, and they will act in this direction, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said.
“You can see that they want to return the so-called historical territories, that is, to take back the western lands that Ukraine received as a result of Josef Vissarionovich Stalin’s decision after World War II. As you know, these lands were taken from Poland and given to Soviet Ukraine,” Putin said at a meeting with members of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights.
According to Putin, “Polish nationalists” will pursue this because “you can see it even from their literature, reasoning and speeches.”