The German agency RND reported that the German military equipment company Rheinmetall, if necessary, could supply Ukraine with 139 Leopard tanks.
According to Reuters, the company can deliver 29 Leopard 2A4 tanks by May-April, and another 22 tanks by the end of 2023 or early 2024. A company spokesman said it could send 88 more tanks to Kyiv. no date.
Despite large arms deliveries to Ukraine, the United States and Germany have not yet begun to send Abrams and Leopard tanks to Ukrainians, in contrast to the UK, which provided Challenger tanks.
Earlier, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that following a meeting of the contact group of NATO countries to support Ukraine at the Ramstein airbase in Germany, it was not possible to reach a consensus on the supply of German Leopard tanks to Kyiv.
On Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Arkadiusz Mulyarchek told the media that Germany would be in international isolation if it did not agree to supply Ukraine with Leopard tanks.
Earlier, the Polish prime minister said in an interview with the Polsat newspaper that Poland is ready to form a small coalition of countries to supply tanks to Kyiv without the participation of Germany, as well as to supply Ukraine with German-made tanks, countries need to obtain German permission to lift export restrictions.
Earlier, Russia sent a memorandum to NATO countries regarding the supply of weapons to Ukraine, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated that any supply of weapons to Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russian forces, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said that NATO countries “play with fire” by supplying Ukraine weapons.
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov pointed out that the supply of weapons to Ukraine from the West does not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and will have a negative impact.
The UK, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Slovakia pledged last week to provide Ukraine with unprecedented military assistance, including tanks, heavy artillery, air defenses and ammunition.
As U.S. and Israeli officials said last week, the Pentagon is using a huge, unknown stock of U.S. munitions in Israel to meet Ukraine’s dire need for artillery shells in its war with Russia.
Today, the new German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Germany to continue discussing the issue of supplying tanks to Ukraine.
Source: News