In particular, according to the estimates of Quotidiano Nazionale, Ukraine could probably receive 19 Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, 14 from Poland, 10 from Finland, and about 40 from the NetherlandsROME, January 22.
/tass/. Western countries will be able to supply Ukraine with much fewer Leopard tanks than Kiev requests. This assessment was made on Sunday by the Italian newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale.
According to her calculations, Ukraine can receive from 33 to 73 units by spring, in total by the beginning of summer - 87, which is "much less than the 300 requested by Ukraine." According to the publication, about 22 more Leopard 2 tanks and 88 Leopard 1 tanks can be added directly from the manufacturer, but they will be received only at the end of 2023 - early 2024. The head of Rheinmetall Armin Papperger, in an interview published on January 15 in the newspaper Bild am Sonntag, claimed that it would take a year to prepare tanks for Kiev.
In particular, according to Quotidiano Nazionale estimates, Kiev could probably receive 19 Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, 14 from Poland, 10 from Finland, and the Netherlands is able to provide about 40 units. The publication admits that Denmark and Portugal can also send combat vehicles of this type.
On Friday, a regular meeting of defense ministers of about 50 countries was held at the American Ramstein airbase in Germany, where further assistance to Kiev was discussed. According to its results, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that the participants had not yet made any decision on the supply of German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. He also noted that there is no cohesive coalition interested in mandatory supplies of this type of armored vehicles to Kiev, but did not rule out that such a decision could be made in the near future.
The newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, citing its own sources, reported on Wednesday that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is ready to allow the supply of Leopard 2 battle tanks to Kiev, provided that the United States, in turn, will provide Ukraine with Abrams tanks. In recent days, the pressure on Berlin to transfer German tanks to Kiev has increased significantly. On January 11, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced that his country had decided to transfer a tank company (14 units) to Ukraine. Then some other states, including Finland, signaled their readiness to provide Leopard.
