Germany wants to buy 96 old Leopard 2 tanks from Switzerland. The Swiss army wrote them off and they are currently in storage.
Blick writes about it.
The German authorities want Switzerland to sell them back to the tank manufacturer — the defense concern Rheinmetall. There they will be repaired, modernized and replaced by the tanks that Germany and other European countries will transfer to Ukraine.
The Minister of Economy Robert Habek and the Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius sent a corresponding letter to Switzerland. They asked that this issue be considered in the Swiss parliament, and also promised that the tanks would not be sent to Ukraine.
Switzerland confirmed such a request from Germany. They said that the permission to transfer the tanks must be approved by the parliament — it must officially make a decision to decommission them.
- On February 20, the Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov stated that the Armed Forces of Ukraine plan to form at least two tank battalions, which will be equipped with Leopard 2. Currently, it is known that Finland will transfer three Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and Norway eight tanks. Poland in the next two to three weeks — 14 Leopard 2 tanks.