Slovenia on Tuesday became the second European country to officially announce that it will send tanks to Ukraine to fight the invading Russian army, Euractiv reports.

The announcement came after Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob reached an agreement with his German counterpart Olaf Scholz on Monday to replace 28 M-55 S1 tanks in the Slovenian armed forces with 40 German-made transport vehicles.

“The exchange between the three countries will strengthen defense cooperation between Slovenia and Germany,” said a press release from Golob’s office regarding the agreement, which was negotiated for several months.

Negotiations began under the previous government, but information at the time indicated that Germany considered the Slovenian government’s expectations to receive state-of-the-art tanks in exchange for those donated to Ukraine to be too high.

Poland was the first European country to send tanks to Ukraine, having announced this at the end of April. In early August, a video shared on social media showed a long column of T-72 tanks that the Ukrainians received from Poland.

In turn, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger, stated at the beginning of July that the government headed by him could present tanks to Ukraine, but later he did not make any official statement on this matter. But Slovakia was still one of the countries that provided Ukraine with one of the most consistent military aid compared to the capabilities of its own armed forces.

The Spanish government, in turn, promised Ukraine 10 tanks, but changed its mind in early August after discovering that the German Leopard models it intended to send to Kyiv were in unsatisfactory condition.

As for the Gepard models that Germany supplies to the Ukrainian forces, they are often mistakenly called “tanks”, but in fact they are armored for air defense.

Ukraine will receive modernized Soviet-made tanks

As Forbes points out, even if the T-55 tanks, which entered service with the Soviet armed forces back in 1947, may seem irrevocably outdated, in the current situation, looks can be deceiving, and Slovenian tanks are not so bad compared to some among “museum”. pieces” sent by the Russian army to Ukraine.

This is due to numerous improvements and modernizations of the old T-55 tanks, which were renamed M-55 by the Armed Forces of Slovenia after the modernization process.

The main gun of the tank has been replaced with a British 105 mm model with a stabilizer, which is compatible with many modern ammunition, including those that can penetrate the armor of modernized T-72 tanks, which are widely used by the Russian army.

For this purpose, a contract was signed with the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems to install on the M-55 tanks a modern fire control system and a laser warning system that detects anti-tank weapons heading towards the combat vehicle, launching smoke grenades as a countermeasure.

Among other upgrades, the M-55 tanks are also equipped with a new engine and dynamic ERA armor. A video that appeared on social media the other day shows how this type of armor can help tanks withstand even direct hits from anti-tank guns.

An analysis by Forbes journalists concludes that the M-55 tanks “should be on a par with many Russian tanks in Ukraine, especially the older T-72 models, as well as the T-62, which the Kremlin pulled out of storage this summer to try to compensate part of losses”.

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