Portugal disclosed details of the agreement under which the country agreed to transfer three of its Leopard 2A6 tanks to Ukraine.

According to a document from the Portuguese Ministry of National Defence, Germany is to finance the maintenance of other Portuguese tanks in return for helping Ukraine.

This covers the maintenance and modernization of 14 Portuguese Leopard 2A6NL tanks over three years as partial compensation.

Maintenance will be carried out by the German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GMBH & CO. KG (KNDS).

The Government of Portugal provided Ukraine with three Leopard 2A6 tanks on March 23.

“The Leopard 2A6 is a technologically sophisticated and critically important tank of the Portuguese military,” the document says.

The transfer of tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces was carried out jointly with the German Ministry of Defense.

Prior to this, in February, KNDS experts assessed the tanks and identified the relevant maintenance needs.

“The maintenance actions under consideration will have a three-year implementation period,” the document says.

Their cost will be fully covered by the Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany.

As of April 2023, Ukraine has the following number of Leopard 2 tanks:

• Germany: 18 Leopard 2A6
• Portugal: 3 Leopard 2A6
• Sweden: 10 Leopard 2A5 (Strv 122)
• Poland: 14 Leopard 2A4
• Spain: 10 Leopard 2A4
• Norway: 8 Leopard 2A4
• Canada: 8 Leopard 2A4
• Netherlands and Denmark: 14 Leopard 2A4

In total, 85 tanks are currently delivered and announced for delivery. In September, it was announced that Canada would provide more Leopard 2 tanks.