Finland decided to supply Ukraine with three tanks Leopard 2
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Finland will supply Kyiv with three Leopard 2 tanks, the president of the republic made such a decision after the delivery was approved by the government, the Finnish edition of Yle reports. The cost of the new aid package to Ukraine will be more than 160 million euros.
According to the decision of the Finnish authorities, the republic will send three Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, as well as provide training on their use and maintenance. In return for this delivery, Helsinki will buy new weapons from Germany, Yle notes.
“Finland is sending additional military aid to Ukraine. The kit includes three Leopard 2 tanks and heavy weapons. The total value of the package is 160 million euros,” Defense Minister Mikko Savola tweeted.
Three Leopard 2 tanks will be included in the 13th aid package for Kyiv, and the total cost of all weapons packages has reached 750 million euros, Yle specifies. The previous delivery was the largest – in January, the authorities approved a package worth more than 400 million euros.
According to the Finnish Ministry of Defense, which the publication cites, the country’s contribution to the project for the supply of tanks “cannot be large” due to the long land border with Russia, Helsinki’s participation is also limited by the fact that the republic is not yet a member of NATO.
On January 25, Germany and the United States announced the delivery of 14 Leopard 2 tanks and 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Kyiv, respectively. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius specified that the first German military equipment would arrive in Ukraine in late March or early April. Poland, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands also announced plans to transfer tanks to Kyiv.
The Russian authorities have repeatedly criticized the supply of Western weapons to Kyiv. In particular, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, warned that pumping Ukraine with weapons brings NATO closer to the dangerous line of a direct military clash with Russia. And Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that the supply of long-range weapons would only expand the geography of the special operation.
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