Comments by "Aristocles Athenaioi" (@aristoclesathenaioi4939) on "US and Germany finalizing plans to send tanks to Ukraine" video.

Every time I hear Wesley Clark's commentary it is always the best. His comments about why the Ukrainians are fighting so hard in Bakhmut is very illuminating.
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@Ray_LF Keep in mind that Ukraine used to service MiG 29 from around the world. Ukraine has expert jet mechanics. How would those Su25 and MiG 29 keep flying with maintenance. I expect the Ukrainian mechanics who already must deal with at least three different jet engines when you include the helicopters, can learn how to maintain an Abrams tank. The Abrams also uses Field Replaceable Units for many parts of the tank including the power plant. The suggestion that Ukraine will have great difficulty transporting jet fuel, aka kerosene, has also been overblown. Ukraine already must have some storage and distribution for kerosene for their airforces alone. Also, despite the fact that almost all of Ukraine was electrified, I expect that kerosene was still used by a substantial number of people. My point being that kerosene has a use other than to power jet engines. In fact, the worldwide consumption of kerosene to fuel air transportation is almost equal to the worldwide consumption of kerosene for illumination. Kerosene is not some exotic petroleum distilate.
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@Ray_LF Oh yes the Budapest Memorandum has been on my mind a lot in the past year, and I have reminded a number of people in various comment threads about it. As to supply of fuel to Abrams tanks, you are correct that it is an issue of volume rather than type. I simply was saying that Abrams tank actually runs on a less expensive fuel because it runs on kerosene. I also did know that the fuel consumption of an Abrams should be measured in GPM or Gallons Per Mile rather than MPG or Miles Per Gallo. Your number closely matches what I have been told, which was 6 Gallons Per Mile. If this question of fuel distribution in a battlefield is of interest to you then you should look up how the Russians handle the problem. It really is bizarre to my way of thinking because they actually lay down pipes. In fact that was part of what that infamous 30 km of trucks was doing. They were not only carrying fuel, but they were laying pipe by the side of that road to pump the fuel later.
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@Big.Bad.Wolfie Well vodka sure seems to be in ample supply from the Russians. The Ukrainians can augment the fuel the West sends supply with fuel from the Russians the way they got their supplies from the Russians. BTW did you realize that Russia is actually the largest arms supplier to Ukraine because of all the captured equipment. I must that I am rather embarassed by that fact. We should have given the Ukrainians the weapons when they asked for them. They desperately pleaded for HIMARS to help them to defend themselves in the retreat from Severodonetsk. I wonder how many Ukrainian lives were lost because we refused to HIMARS systems at that time?
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Well as to the issue of combined arms training, that is exactly what Ukrainian soldiers are learning at Ramstein as we speak. As I recall the number of Ukrainian troops is in the thousands rather than hundreds. The UK training was more about how to do combat in a company or platoon. Very, Very Important, but not combined arms. One does need to walk before they run. Now the Ukrainian soldiers are getting combined arms training in Ramstein. You may not have heard, but the General who heads the Ukrianian Armed Forces had done training with NATO forces, and was even underway with as reorganization a training of the Ukrainian Army when Russia attacked. You may recall that there were Florida National Guard in Ukraine when Russia attacked. They were doing training in NATO tactics. Rome was not built in a day, and now there is more training with more troops in the UK and Ramstein.
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