Since February 2022, Ukraine has relied heavily on Western aid to resist the Russian invasion, including the use of U.S.-supplied M1 Abrams tanks. Despite its reputation as a reliable main battle tank, the Abrams has suffered heavy losses on Ukrainian soil, with up to 20 out of 31 tanks reportedly destroyed due to advanced Russian weaponry like the Kornet anti-tank missile.
Seriously though I don't know why they thought a few dozen Abrams would do anything. The US deployed over 2,000 tanks during Desert Storm and that was basically a skirmish compared to what's going on in Ukraine.
My theory is that the NATO MIC is treating the war like a lab experiment. They give Ukraine a handful of export versions of all sorts of different hardware, then see how the Russian military takes them out for their own R&D purposes.
IIRC there were reports done about that happening in the Middle East. Various NATO countries were testing weapons against whoever was in the way. I think one of the studies done was on the effects of depleted uranium ammunition.