The Netherlands has stated that it has not changed its position regarding the supply of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
This was stated by the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands Sacha Luhoff in a comment to Reuters.
On February 15, citing sources, the German newspaper Die Welt reported that the governments of the Netherlands and Denmark abandoned the decision to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The Dutch Ministry of Defense said this was not the case.
"The Netherlands has no tanks but leases 18 from Germany. It was decided with Germany that tanks from another battalion were best suited for delivery to Ukraine. If Germany decided to send tanks from our binational battalion, we would not object to it. We also wonʼt mind if they decide to send them later," said Sasha Luhoff.
- The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany said this month that they would buy at least 100 Leopard-1A5 main battle tanks for Ukraine.
- At the Ramstein meeting on February 14, US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin announced that eight countries would supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine. These are Germany, Poland, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. The USA, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands together will provide more than 90 T-72 tanks, and Great Britain — Challenger 2 tanks. Ukraine will also receive air defense systems: the USA, Germany and the Netherlands will provide Patriot systems, France and Italy — SAMP/T.