German Leopard 2 tank.
Stockholm – Germany and Portugal will deliver the promised Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine by the end of March, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced today. According to the Portuguese Minister of Defense Helena Carreiras, the machines will also be delivered to Ukraine with trained crews, the DPA agency reported.
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“I can tell you that I have just learned that 18 German Leopard 2A6 tanks and three Portuguese tanks can arrive in Ukraine all together (…) this month,” Pistorius said on the sidelines of a meeting of defense ministers of European Union countries in Sweden. According to him, the tanks will arrive in the country attacked by Russia together with trained crews and can then be deployed in combat.
Portuguese Defense Minister Helena Carreiras said in Stockholm that three Leopard tanks provided by her country are already in Germany and are ” fully functional”. “Together with 18 German tanks, they will be handed over to Ukraine by the end of the month,” the Portuguese news agency Lusa quoted her as saying. Portugal has a total of 37 German Leopard 2A6 tanks, which it bought from the Netherlands years ago.
The supply of Leopard 2 tanks is part of the military aid of Germany and other countries to defend Ukraine against Russia. At the end of January, the German government announced the goal of “rapidly assembling” two tank battalions made up of Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine. A tank battalion usually has 31 tanks in Ukraine.
In addition to Germany and Portugal, the coalition of countries willing to provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks they also involved Poland, Norway, Canada and Spain, among others. Poland already delivered the first four Leopard 2 type 2A4 main battle tanks to Ukraine in February, and ten more are to follow this week.
