Illustrative photo – Tank Leopard 1 in Storkau, Germany on May 19, 2000.
Kyiv – The first Western tanks with trained Ukrainian crews will arrive in Ukraine in the near time, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced today. On the contrary, according to him, Russian tanks captured by Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield are heading to the West to demonstrate to the Western public on the anniversary of the Russian invasion that the Russian army is not invincible.
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“The free world has created a tank coalition to help Ukraine win this war. We expect the first tanks from partners with trained Ukrainian crews in the near future,” Reznikov wrote on Facebook.
The minister also said, that exhibitions with Russian tanks captured on the battlefield will be opened in Germany, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. “Citizens of four countries will simultaneously see on February 24 that Russian tanks can reach Europe via Ukraine only in the form of museum exhibits,” he noted. When the Europeans see the destroyed Russian tanks, they will be convinced that “Russia can and must be defeated”. And according to Reznikov, it is better to do so in Ukraine, so that Europeans do not have to defend their homes from the enemy.
The Unian agency added that Ukrainian tankers are currently undergoing training in several Western countries. Poland promises that the Leopard 2 tanks it promised will arrive in Ukraine in the next two to three weeks. A question mark still hangs over the delivery of 31 Abrams tanks promised by Washington.
Russia has already lost more than 145,000 soldiers and 3,334 tanks since the beginning of the invasion on February 24 last year, according to the Ukrainian General Staff. Similar claims of enemy losses cannot be independently verified in wartime conditions.
