If necessary, the German defense concern Rheinmetall can transfer 139 Leopard type 1 and 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Most of them will be ready for transfer at the end of 2023.
RND writes about this with reference to a representative of the concern.
"We have 22 machines of the Leopard 2A4 type that we could prepare for operation and send to Ukraine," the representative noted.
According to him, the repair of these tanks will last almost a year. Delivery is possible at the end of 2023 — at the beginning of 2024.
"There are another 29 Leopard 2A4s that will be ready for delivery in April-May 2023. We could make another 88 Leopard 1 tanks available," he added.
- 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 Borys Pistorius stated 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.
- White House spokesman for national security and defense John Kirby said that Germany is going through "its own process" on the issue of providing Leopard tanks to Ukraine. According to him, the United States does not put pressure on the Germans.
- According to Business Insider, a former German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, before her resignation, banned the Bundeswehrʼs inventory of tanks in order to delay the governmentʼs response to the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine.