MOSCOW: It is unclear when Ukraine will receive Abrams tanks from Washington, according to Politico, because the only US facility making the armor already has a backlog of orders from other US allies.

The Lima, Ohio facility, operated by General Dynamics, must first produce hundreds of tanks for Poland and Taiwan before it can begin work on the 31 units the Biden administration promised to Kyiv earlier this week , the outlet noted in an article on Thursday.

Starting in 2025, Warsaw is expected to receive 250 M1 Abrams tanks of the modified A2 version. In the midst of a conflict with Russia last year.

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The Polish government donated 250 of its T-72 tanks to Kyiv from the Soviet era. Poland is currently receiving 116 M1A1 tanks from the US as last-minute replacements for its armor stock after the Marine Corps recently retired them.

Taipei also placed an order for 108 M1A2 tanks in 2019, with the first deliveries to begin in 2020.

Considering the importance of Washington's relations with Poland and Taiwan, Politico wrote that delaying those orders "would be difficult and perhaps controversial."

Rather than building Abrams tanks from the ground up, the Lima plant modifies so-called "M1 seed vehicles", adding modern technology to them. However, as it continued, it could only produce 12 of these cars each month.

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Tanks for Ukraine will not come from US stockpiles; Instead, they will be purchased from industry and upgraded at the facility in Ohio, meaning "they won't hit the battlefield for several months, or possibly years," according to the outlet.

The A2 tanks, which have upgraded optics and control systems, will be delivered to Ukraine, according to an unnamed official who spoke to Politico. The official said they would be denied access to the secretly depleted uranium armor packages that the US military currently uses.

According to a German statement on Thursday, 14 Leopard main battle tanks are expected to arrive in Ukraine by the end of March. The UK announced a comparable timetable after promising Kyiv 14 Challenger 2 tanks to be built in the country.

According to Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the planned tank delivery to Moscow is seen as "direct involvement" on the NATO side in the conflict in Ukraine. And this participation is growing, he continued.

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Peskov insisted earlier this month that Western armor would not affect the outcome of the conflict and that they would "burn" if they appeared on the battlefield.