German Defense Minister announced delivery of 21 Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv in March

Ukraine will receive 18 German and three Portuguese Leopard 2 tanks by the end of March, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. Berlin had previously promised to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv.

“I just found out that 18 German Leopard 2 tanks and three Portuguese tanks can all arrive in Ukraine this month,” said Pistorius before the meeting of EU ministers in Sweden (quoted from Taggeschau).

On January 25, Germany announced the delivery of 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv. Pistorius then specified that the first military equipment would arrive in Ukraine in late March – early April. Poland, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Canada and the Netherlands also announced plans to transfer tanks to Kyiv. In addition, the UK announced the shipment of its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, and the US – M1 Abrams.

In early February, the Canadian Ministry of Defense reported that the first Leopard 2 tank had been sent to Kiev. In addition, at the end of the month, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced that Warsaw had sent the first of the promised 14 tanks to Kiev. According to him, they are already on the territory of Ukraine. On February 28, adviser to the acting head of the DPR, Yan Gagin, reported that Leopards had been spotted in the Artemovsk area.

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. The Kremlin said that the Leopard and Abrams tanks would burn down the same way as the rest of Western military equipment. Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, stressed that tanks would not save Ukraine, and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin predicted the fate of the fascist Tigers for them.