The Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic has denied claims that the country is ready to transfer its Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
This is stated in the press service of the agency.
“Foreign media reported that the Czech Republic and Slovakia are allegedly ready to give up Leopard 2 tanks in favor of Ukraine. This information is not true. No one asked or offered the Czech Republic to provide tanks, which, according to the previous agreement, it will receive from Germany as compensation for assistance to Ukraine,” the statement reads.
They also emphasized that nothing similar was discussed at the meeting in the Rammstein format. The assumption that the Czech Republic will receive American Abrams tanks instead of Leopard is also not true.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that the governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia are ready to transfer their Leopard tanks to Ukraine. These countries have already transferred their old Soviet tanks to Ukraine. Instead, Germany had to replace them with its modern Leopard 2A4 tanks.
- On January 20, the eighth meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine was held at the Rammstein Air Base in Germany. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that the Western allies at the Rammstein-style meeting have not yet reached an agreement on providing Ukraine with Leopard 2 main battle tanks. According to him, Germany does not block this decision.
- At the same time, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, announced that the Ukrainian military will already begin training to operate Leopard tanks. This means that as soon as a political decision on deliveries is made, the Ukrainian army will be able to use these tanks immediately.