El Pais: Spain decided to supply Leopard tanks to Kyiv

The Spanish government decided to join the supply of European countries of German Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, writes El Pais.

In total, Spain has 347 Leopard tanks, while 239 are the Leopard 2E model produced in the country, and the remaining 108 are Leopard 2 A4s purchased from Germany in the 90s.

Madrid will join the supplies after Berlin gives permission for the supply of German-made tanks, the newspaper notes.

Earlier it became known that Germany decided put Ukraine tanks Leopard. According to Der Spiegel, we are talking about at least one company of Leopard 2A6. The German government also wants to grant Ukraine permission to export tanks that belong to other states, such as Poland.

Since spring, Ukraine has been demanding the transfer of Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, but Kyiv has been denied this in Berlin. At the same time, the UK announced the delivery of Challenger 2 tanks. According to The Wall Street Journal, Washington is also leaning towards the decision to send Abrams M1 tanks to Kyiv.

It was expected that the decision on the transfer of weapons to Kyiv would be made on January 20 at a meeting of the heads of defense ministries of NATO member countries at the American base in Ramstein, Germany, but again failed to agree with Germany on this. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the meeting in Ramstein “a provocative incitement” and “raising the stakes in the conflict.”