Chancellor Olaf Scholz officially confirmed on Wednesday that Germany will send Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, Reuters reports.
“This decision is in line with our well-known line to help Ukraine in the best possible way. We are closely coordinated at the international level,” Olaf Scholz said in a press release.
It states that the goal is to quickly create two battalions of Leopard 2 tanks in Ukraine and that Germany will supply 14 tanks of this type from its military reserves.
The communiqué also states that in the near future training of the Ukrainian military in the use of these combat vehicles will begin in Germany, and Berlin will provide the Kyiv troops with ammunition and other logistical support necessary for the use of Leopard 2 tanks.
Scholz also announced that his government will soon issue the necessary permits for partner countries to transfer Leopard 2 tanks from their armed forces to Ukraine.
Poland became the first NATO member state to express its intention to supply Kyiv with tanks, announcing the shipment of a company of 14 German-made Leopard tanks on January 11.
The epic about the transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
But the government in Warsaw needed approval from Germany, the country where the tanks were manufactured, under NATO military procurement rules, and the next two weeks were marked by delays from the Scholz government and sharp accusations against him from the Polish executive.
The decision, announced by Scholz on Wednesday, finally came just a day after Poland submitted a formal request to transfer the tanks to Ukraine, but several senior officials in Warsaw said the delivery would take place with or without authorization.
“We will ask for such approval, but this is a secondary issue,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Monday in Poznan, western Poland. He also said that if Poland does not eventually win Germany’s approval, it wants to operate as part of a small coalition.
“If Germany is not part of this coalition, we will still transfer our tanks to Ukraine together with others,” added Moravetskyi.
On Tuesday evening, Norway’s two largest newspapers reported that the government in Oslo is also considering sending some of its Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
According to Dagens Naeringsliv, Norway, a NATO member which in turn borders Russia, may provide four or eight of the 36 Leopard 2 tanks.
Since 1979, when they entered service with the armed forces of West Germany, about 3,600 Leopard 2 tanks and their modernized variants have been produced to date. European countries currently have about 2,000 Leopard 2 tanks.
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Source: Hot News
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