US Abrams tanks supplied to Ukraine 'will be destroyed' warns Russian ambassador

Russia's military will destroy the US-supplied Abrams tanks in Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov warned on Tuesday, Jan. 24, adding that it is yet another "blatant provocation" against the Federation of Russia. "If a decision to transfer to Kyiv M1 Abrams is made, American tanks without any doubt will be destroyed as all other samples of NATO military equipment," Antonov said in a statement on Telegram. 

Washington's actions "shows that the Americans are constantly raising the “bar” of military assistance to their puppet [Zelenskyy] government," asserted Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov. 

"This is especially clear when the Russian Armed Forces gain new victories and confidently liberate the territory of Russia from the Nazi threat," he continued. 

Biden administration is deliberately trying to inflict "strategic defeat" on Russia by pumping arms into Ukraine, the Russian ambassador noted. The US government is also giving the "green light" to use of American weaponry to attack the 2014 annexed Russian territory of Crimea, said Antonov. Russia's official derided the Ukrainian military for wreaking atrocities on the ethnic Russian population of eastern Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions for eight years. America is at direct war with Moscow, he iterated. "A growing number of officials and experts in America admit: it is all about US proxy-war with our country," he asserted. 

"No one should have illusions about who is the real aggressor in the current conflict," said Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov. 

US Army M1 Abrams tanks 'were destroyed beyond repair in Iraq, Libya': pro-Russian channels

Antonov's remarks came as United States President Joe Biden prepared to deliver 30-50 Abrams tanks to Ukraine to counter invading Russian forces in Kyiv. The tanks' approval could come as early as this week. Although the actual date of the delivery is still unclear, it is speculated that it may take several months to actually train the Ukrainian military to effectively use M1 Abrams tanks.

Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels slammed the Biden administration's decision, saying that approximately 80 US Army M1 Abrams tanks were destroyed beyond repair by the insurgent militia during the US invasion of Iraq between 2003 to 2011. An estimated 63 could be repaired but 17 were totally damaged from the use of improvised IEDs and mainly using Russian weapons system—the 9M133 Kornet, a man-portable anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). The latter was also used by the Hezbollah fighters to destroy four Israeli Merkava tanks during the Lebanon war of 2006. The advanced Russian weaponry also destroyed the reverse-engineered Kornets produced in North Korea, according to the argument presented by the pro-Kremlin channels.