Germany and the United States on Wednesday announced their intention to supply Ukraine with modern Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks. Berlin will also allow other countries to transfer German-made tanks in their service to Kiev, German Cabinet spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters.
According to TASS estimates, in total Ukraine can get about 100 modern Western tanks. Earlier, Kiev had already received 350-400 Soviet-made tanks from abroad, mainly T-72.
The Kremlin, commenting on reports about the West's plans to allocate modern tanks to the Ukrainian military, has already stressed that this will not change the course of a special military operation. TASS has collected the main information about the supply of tanks to Ukraine.
Abrams for Ukraine
The United States has decided to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, US President Joe Biden said. Earlier, various media outlets suggested that Washington was ready to supply Kiev with 10 to 50 such machines.
Deliveries may take a long time, a high-ranking representative of the Washington administration told reporters at a special briefing. The fact is that Abrams will be allocated under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) program, which assumes not the provision of available equipment, but its purchase from manufacturers.
How much will Leopard get Kiev
Germany's goal is, together with its partners, to provide Ukraine with tanks for the formation of two battalions. As a rule, there are 44 such combat vehicles in the Bundeswehr tank battalion.
Germany and Poland decided to transfer one company each to the Ukrainian military, that is, 14 tanks each. Berlin will supply Kiev with cars of the 2A6 modification, which can be transferred in about three to four months.
The Netherlands, which leases 18 Leopards from Germany, is ready to buy them for transfer to Ukraine, said the Prime Minister of the kingdom Mark Rutte.
Norway can transfer up to 8 tanks to Ukraine, Portugal is considering the possibility of allocating 4 combat vehicles, local newspapers reported, citing sources.
Spain and Finland, which have already announced their readiness to supply Leopard to Ukraine, did not specify how many tanks they could transfer. Finnish Defense Minister Mikko Savola warned that his country's contribution "cannot be very large."
Sweden, according to the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, does not exclude the possibility of sending its version of Leopard - Stridsvagn 122 to Ukraine.
Other Western tanks
The UK previously announced plans to supply Ukraine with 14 Challenger 2 tanks in the coming weeks.
France intends to send light wheeled AMX-10 RC tanks to the Ukrainian military within two months, the number of which has not been disclosed. The Republic is also considering the possibility of supplying Leclerc tanks.
Deliveries of Soviet tanks
Western countries, according to TASS estimates, have transferred at least about 350 Soviet-made tanks to Ukraine, mostly various modifications of the T-72.
More than half of the deliveries were to Poland, which allocated a total of 240 T-72 in the M1 version.
The Czech Republic became the second largest supplier. The United States and the Netherlands agreed to finance the transfer of 90 Czech T-72s to Ukraine, but by the end of last year, according to the director of the republican Agency for Interstate Defense Cooperation Alyosha Vitechki, only 20 vehicles were sent. At the same time, according to the newspaper Mladá fronta DNES, Prague handed over 40 more tanks to Kiev independently.
North Macedonia, according to local media reports, last summer handed over to Ukraine about 10 of the approximately 30 T-72s it had in service.
Ukraine also received about 20 T-72 tanks from Morocco, the Algerian online resource MENADEFENSE reported. According to him, the kingdom, which acquired a total of about 300 T-72, made such a decision under pressure from Western countries.
Slovenia has sent 28 M-55S tanks to Ukraine - modifications of the Soviet T-55 tank. In the spring of last year, the possibility of transferring the T-72 from Ljubljana to Kiev was also discussed, but no deliveries were officially reported.
Slovakia was going to transfer all 30 of its T-72 tanks to the Ukrainian military in exchange for 15 Leopard from Germany, the Business Insider portal wrote. There was no official information about the implementation of this project.
