German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that the Western allies would not be able to assemble a whole battalion of 54 Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine. Earlier, Mr. Pistorius criticized the pace of delivery of these tanks to Ukraine.
Germany promised to supply Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2 tanks, Portugal – three tanks, Boris Pistorius said at a briefing after a meeting with NATO colleagues in Brussels. “We will not reach the size of a battalion,” he said, his words are quoted Bloomberg.
Poland has assembled about 30 units of the old version of the Leopard 2 A4, he said, almost enough for a standard Ukrainian tank battalion of 31, but many of them are in poor condition and need to be repaired before they can be used. He added that these tanks will arrive in Ukraine only at the end of April.
The coalition for the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine includes eight countries: Germany, Denmark, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Portugal. According to Die Welt sources, the Netherlands and Denmark refused to supply Leopard 2 tanks, but promised to help repair Leopard 1 tanks.
