As the winter thaw looms in Ukraine, NATO tanks will be critical

In today’s Big Story podcast, a Canadian tank arrived in Poland on Monday, and will head off to bolster Ukrainian efforts to repel the Russian invasion. The single tank, obviously, isn’t critical on its own, but what it represents definitely is: a willingness on the part of NATO to supply Ukraine with increasingly powerful weapons.

Matt Gurney is a reporter, columnist, and co-founder of The Line newsletter, where he wrote about the strategic necessity of modern tanks for the Ukrainian military.

“The Russians are going the low quality but lots of quantity route, the Ukrainians can’t throw as many bodies at this as the Russians can,” he said, “they need firepower to overcome Russian numerical superiority.”

As the territory warms up, Russia will likely attempt new incursions — and the tanks will allow Ukrainian forces to bring the fight to them. After nearly a year of death and resistance, and a cold, slow winter, what happens when the thaw arrives?

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