Germany announced plans on Wednesday to deliver heavy tanks to Ukraine, and the United States was poised to do so too, a breakthrough hailed as a decisive military boost by Kyiv and condemned by Moscow as a reckless provocation.

Kyiv has been calling for months for Western main battle tanks that would give its forces the firepower, protection and mobility to break through Russian defensive lines and swoop through territory occupied by the invaders.

"A few hundred tanks for our tank crews .... This is what is going to become a real punching fist of democracy," Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's administration, wrote on Telegram.

Mark Hertling, a former commander of U.S. ground forces in Europe, estimated Leopards could be on the battlefield in Ukraine as soon as March, while the U.S. tanks, which need more logistical support, could be more than eight months away.

Washington's possible tank deliveries a 'blatant provocation' – Russian ambassador
The possible deliveries of battle tanks by Washington to Ukraine will be a “another blatant provocation” against Russia, Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the US, said on Wednesday.