Freddy Verslais, a Belgian millionaire who has bought hundreds of tanks through his military companies over the years, says he wants to send combat vehicles to Ukraine. But the Belgian government accuses him of trying to take advantage of the war to demand exorbitant prices, Reuters reports.

There are rows of Leopard tanks in a warehouse in Belgium. Not the Leopard 2, which Germany and other Western countries announced in January about sending to Ukraine, but its predecessor the Leopard 1.

Versleis wants to sell them, but doesn’t like being called an arms dealer. He notes that he is a director of two defense companies that carry out a wide range of activities, such as the development of sensors for aircraft.

But buying and selling weapons is also part of his business plan.

The Belgian millionaire says he bought many Leopard tanks through his companies about 8 years ago and that they “are available for sale, but of course we can’t use them as they are.”

“Complete rehabilitation is needed, the fire control system needs to be revised. So we really have to restore them, get them back on their feet before we can use them on the battlefield in any way,” Versluys says.

The last tanks of Belgium were bought by a millionaire

It was these tanks that brought him to the attention of public opinion in Belgium in the context when he entered into a dispute with the government of his country regarding the possibility of sending tanks to Ukraine.

Although in recent days many of Ukraine’s Western partners have promised to send tanks to Kyiv to repel new Russian offensives, Belgium has not joined this group for a very simple reason: it no longer has tanks.

The Belgian government sold the last tanks of its armed forces more than 5 years ago to one of the Verslues companies. Belgium’s current defense minister, Ludivine Dedonder, says he has doubts about buying them back.

“These tanks were sold at a price of 10-15 thousand euros per piece, because they no longer worked. Nothing prevents us from buying them, but they are not active. And we have no intention of buying them at unreasonable prices either,” he says.

Dendonder also charges that some Belgian arms companies are currently making unreasonably high profits.

Versluys has the largest private collection of armored vehicles in Europe

But Versleis says that if Belgium doesn’t want to return the Leopards, another European country could buy them for Ukraine, saying he has held talks with several governments about the possibility.

“There are governments with which we are now holding discussions. I recently received a call from the government of Ukraine. Yes, yes, there are a lot of interests. But this is happening because the German government granted export licenses, which has not yet happened,” says the millionaire.

“But we’re also talking to the UK government, we’re talking to the Swedish government, so there’s a lot of governments that are interested. But we will have to see what happens,” says Versluys.

He notes that his firms also own other types of tanks, including the Italian SK-105 models, as well as numerous armored vehicles and vehicles that are part of Europe’s largest collection of combat vehicles.

Germany approved the export of Leopard 1 tanks

On Friday, Germany just confirmed that it has approved the export of Leopard 1 tanks, without specifying how many units are planned to be sent to Ukraine.

The announcement came after the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported this morning that the Berlin government had approved plans by German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall to sell 88 old Leopards to Kyiv after refurbishing them at a total cost of more than 100 million euros.

As for the Leopard tanks owned by Versluys, the main obstacle to their purchase by the Belgian government is the cost of repairs, which, according to the millionaire, can reach a million euros for some combat vehicles.

“We are still in discussions, but I am not going to pay half a million euros for a tank that is far from ready for combat,” Ludivine Dedonder told Belgian media.

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