Germany and Poland to convene “tank coalition” next week
Boris Pistorius and Oleksii Reznikov (Photo:Oleksii Reznikov/Twitter)
In the coming days, Germany and Poland will gather representatives of countries that are ready to supply Ukraine with Leopard-2 tanks, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said during a visit to Poland on Feb. 8, as reported by German newspaper Bild.
He said the meeting of the “tank coalition” will serve to coordinate joint effort to expedite arming Kyiv with modern Western tanks.
According to the Guardian, Pistorius also noted that the first Leopard-2 tanks could arrive in Ukraine in March-April.
“We could deliver at least one battalion in the first four months of this year – three months maybe – and then we need to proceed as fast as possible of course,” the minister said.
On Jan. 25, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz officially announced that Germany would transfer 14 Leopard-2 tanks to Ukraine and approve their re-export from partner countries.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that Ukraine will receive 120-140 modern Western tanks in the first wave of deliveries. According to him, the “tank coalition” supporting Ukraine already includes 12 countries.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian military needs 300-500 tanks to conduct an offensive to liberate Russia-occupied parts of Ukraine.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
