TSAMTO, February 8. At a time when European countries are considering the possibility of supplying their Leopard tanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Czech Defense Ministry is promoting plans to purchase new Leopard-2A7+ MBT.
According to Defense News, the reason for the activation of the project was the delivery in December 2022 to the Czech Republic of the first of 14 Leopard-2A4 MBT, which will be received from the German Armed Forces in exchange for Soviet-made equipment transferred to Ukraine.
Last year, the Czech Republic donated Soviet-designed T-72 tanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In return, within the framework of the Ringtausch VIVT exchange program implemented by the German government, Berlin and Prague agreed on the delivery of the Leopard-2A4 batch.
The command of the Czech Armed Forces declares that the received Leopard-2A4 will allow preparing personnel for the acquisition of new Leopard-2A7+. In May last year, Czech Defense Minister Yana Chernokhova said that Prague could buy up to 50 new Leopard-2A7+ tanks in Germany.
According to the schedule, the remaining 13 Leopard-2A4 MBT should be delivered to the Czech Armed Forces by the end of this year. According to the Czech Ministry of Defense, they will be part of the 7th Mechanized Brigade.
Meanwhile, on February 5, Canadian Minister of National Defense Anita Anand announced on her Twitter page that "the first Canadian Leopard-2 main battle tank donated to Ukraine has arrived in Poland." Germany intends to supply the APU with 14 Leopard-2 tanks. In addition, it is potentially possible to supply up to 170 Leopard-1 main battle tanks. In addition to Canada and Germany, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Portugal and Spain announced their readiness to supply existing Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
