The first German Marder infantry fighting vehicles are already on their way to Ukraine.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius shared this on the sidelines of an EU Foreign and Defense Ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday, CNN reports.

The Head of Defense Ministry also spoke about the raining of the Ukrainian military to use air defense systems and the mastering of Western armored vehicles by the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Currently, more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers are being trained on air defense systems, on Leopard tanks, and on Marder IFVs,” Pistorius said.

The Minister also added that Marder infantry fighting vehicles are on their way to Ukraine.

Previously, in a telephone conversation on January 5, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to send heavy military equipment to Kyiv.

Germany announced its readiness to supply Marder IFVs and Patriot SAM systems to Ukraine.

This regarded 40 Marder IFVs and the organization of training on these vehicles for the Ukrainian military. Germany’s plans envision that 20 vehicles will be delivered from the Bundeswehr depots, with another 20 being supplied by the arms company Rheinmetall.

Later, former German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht reported that the infantry fighting vehicles should arrive by the end of March.

The first group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine servicemen arrived in Germany to master Marder infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) on January 26. German media reported on this.

Marder IFV was developed in the 1960s by order of the German Armed Force by the German company Rheinmetall AG s. The IFV is armed with an RH 202 20mm autocannon and a coaxial MG3 7.62mm machine gun paired, mounted on a carriage on top of a two-seat turret. The Rh 202 gun uses 20×139 mm shells.

The vehicle can accommodate 10 soldiers, of which three are crew members. The commander and gunner are seated in the turret, and the driver is in front of the hull on the left side. The fighting compartment is located in the middle of the IFV`s hull.