Der Spiegel: Next week, Germany will begin training the Ukrainian military on Leopard 2

Next week, Germany will begin training Ukrainian teams on the Leopard 2 battle tank.

This is reported by Der Spiegel.

According to the publication, over the past few days the Air Force has already transferred the first groups of Ukrainian soldiers from Poland to Germany. In the middle of next week, Leopard 2 training will begin at the Münster training ground in Lower Saxony, where Ukrainian units are already training on Marder infantry fighting vehicles.

The Bundeswehr is planning a kind of crash course for Ukrainian soldiers, some of whom came directly from the front line, from the city of Bakhmut. In just six to eight weeks, they must master the basics of operating the weapons complex and practice the interaction of Leopard 2 tanks and the Marder infantry fighting vehicle.

If all goes according to plan, the trained military should return to the front line in Ukraine with the Leopard 2 by the end of March.

• At the end of January, Germany officially agreed to transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine and gave permission to other countries to do so. After that, it became known that European countries are preparing to transfer 80 Leopard tanks to Ukraine. This is enough to form two tank battalions. One battalion will be assembled from tanks provided by Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Finland. These will be Leopard 2A6 versions. The second battalion will be supplied with tanks version 2А4 from Poland and Norway.
• On February 3, the German government approved the plans of the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall to sell 88 old Leopard 1 tanks to Kyiv. Later, they also gave permission to another company to supply 90 such tanks.