"I'll defer to the Ukrainians on how they use their Abrams," Brown said when asked about reports Ukrainian forces have removed their Abrams tanks from the frontlines.
The New York Times reported last week, citing a senior US official, that the Russian armed forces have taken out five of the 31 US-supplied M1 Abrams tanks in the special military operation zone in the last two months.
Another three tanks the United States sent to Ukraine have been moderately damaged since the beginning of this year, the report added.
In February, Ukrainian media platform strana.ua reported that the Ukrainian armed forces had been using Abrams for over a month in the direction of Avdiivka, also known as Avdeyevka, from where they later withdrew. On March 6, a commander of one of the Russian military units told Sputnik that the Russian forces destroyed a US-made Abrams for the first time in the Avdiivka direction during a tank battle.
In late September 2023, the White House confirmed that Abrams tanks had begun arriving in Ukraine. In total, the US administration vowed to give Kiev 31 Abrams tanks. However, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, said that these tanks "will not live very long on the battlefield" in an ordinary combined arms battle.