The first two Leopard 1 tanks of the Belgian entrepreneur Frederic Versluys left for modernization.

De Standaard reported on this.

Tank loading took place at the OIP Land Systems company’s facility in the city of Tournai. Versluys is the owner of this company.

“The tanks will first stop in Germany and Italy, where they will be overhauled and equipped with modern weapons systems. After that, they will go to the battlefield,” Frederic Versluys commented.

The history of these tanks began a long time ago. Previously, Ludivine Dedonder, Minister of Defense of Belgium, announced that the country was ready to buy the tanks and transfer them to Ukraine.

However, Belgian high-ranking officials were outraged by the inflated price of armored vehicles because the owner did not modernize the tanks and did not invest money in their storage.

The Chief Executive of OIP Land Systems called such statements unjustified, so the purchase did not take place.

The Minister of Defense of Belgium stated that Versluys asked for € 500,000 per unit. According to Dedonder, the tanks were bought in Belgium for € 10-15 thousand each.

In addition, Versluys stated that his company OIP Land Systems is preparing 90 M113 armored personnel carriers, the purchase of which was financed by Great Britain.

It is reported that about 50 Leopard 1 tanks are stored in the warehouses of OIP Land Systems. According to the owner, only 33 units were operational at the time of purchase.

It is not known which country financed the purchase and modernization of the tanks, and the number of tanks and the value of the deal are not disclosed.

Militarnyi previously reported that the first Leopard 1A5 tanks arrived in Ukraine in July.