After Deadly Dnipro Strike, Western Allies Might be Ready to Provide Ukraine With Tanks

• After the deadly attack on an apartment building that killed over 44 people in Dnipro on Saturday, Western allies might be ready to reconsider their reluctance to provide Ukraine with tanks for its counteroffensive against Russia.

Why Ukraine Wants Tanks

• Ukraine has been imploring its allies for tanks since the beginning of the war, and its allies have thus far been reluctant to provide them, fearing that the move could provoke heightened Russian aggression, or the expansion of the war's front.
• Ukraine has stated that U.S M1 Abrams tanks and Germany's Leopard 2's could give it an advantage over Russian hardware, and would be an improvement over the Soviet-era T-72 tanks they have been using up until this point.
• A soldier named Bogdan, fighting in the besieged Donbas region, told BBC, "Leopards, Challengers, Abrams - any foreign tank is good for us! I think we need at least 300. And we need them now!"
• Kyiv says a fleet of Western battle tanks would give it the advantage it needs to turn the tide of the war.

What's Next

• John E. Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told CNBC, “My understanding is that a deal has essentially been worked out."
• This past weekend, the U.K decided to provide fourteen Challenger 2's to Ukraine.
• Poland and Finland have said that they will send Leopards if Berlin gives re-export approval, which it has not authorized as of yet.
• Germany has been the main holdout in providing tanks to Ukraine, but they may be reconsidering. They announced that the provision of tanks is the first point in the agenda of the new defence minister, Boris Pistorius.
• Ukrainian officials are meeting with Western allies in Germany on Friday to discuss the countries military needs and strategy moving forward. Germany is under pressure to provide support.

—Emma Kansiz