The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov spoke about the prospects of obtaining Leopard tanks for Ukraine.

He noted that there is an agreement with one of the friendly countries to supply this type of weapon.

He spoke about this during the national telethon.

“Most likely, we will start with one of the friendly countries that have Leopard tanks. They are ready to provide those to us,” Oleksii Reznikov said.

He added that these vehicles will be used to train the Ukrainian military. That would take several dozen tanks. The Leopard tank training will take place in the Baltic countries.

“When the tank crews are ready, we will continue talks about arming the Ukrainian military with advanced tanks. I’m not talking about Leopards only, we’re also trying to convince our partners that those could be American-made Abrams as well,” Reznikov said.

Previously, Spain has agreed to transfer 10 Leopard 2A4 tanks and 20 M113 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defense of Spain is also considering armored vehicles from its reserves, the ones not used by the country’s armed forces.

Prior to that, Spain supplied ammunition, personal protective equipment, and light weapons. Now, the conversation moved to transferring main battle tanks.

After tanks and armored personnel carriers become the property of the Armed Forces, the Ukrainian government will finance the renewal and modernization of the vehicles at Spanish enterprises.

The Leopard 2A4 and M113 repair funding can come from the European Peace Fund financed by the European Union.

The likely cost of renovating the tanks and armored personnel carriers is €5-15 million. It will last until the end of this year. The cost will depend on the level of upgrade that will be chosen and the difficulty of finding the necessary spare parts for the vehicles.

Circular deliveries from Germany

In general, the supply of heavy armored vehicles to Ukraine works on the “circular delivery” principle, when Germany transfers its equipment to partner countries which in turn transfer Soviet-type tanks to Ukraine.

At the same time, Germany itself criticizes this principle and calls for the direct transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, head of the Bundestag’s defense committee, criticized the “circular supplies”, DW reported.

“We have to find the courage to admit that it doesn’t work the way we imagined it would. Therefore, we should switch to direct supplies,” said the Free Democratic Party MP on July 22.

Prior to that, such supplies were criticized by another MP from the same parliamentary committee, Roderich Kiesewetter of the opposition Christian Democratic Union. He noted that the German government is delaying Poland’s proposal to replace the T-72s transferred to Ukraine.

“After three months of deliberation the German offer is 20 Leopard 2 tanks. Delivery starts in April 2023, 1 unit per month, starting October 2023 – 3 units per month,” Kiesewetter stated.

His statement describes the Leopard 2 supply agreement between Poland and Germany aimed to replace the equipment transferred to Ukraine.

Kiesewetter also noted that it would probably be worthwhile to start direct deliveries of tanks to Ukraine. There have been no official statements from Berlin on this matter yet.

Previously, Oleksii Reznikov announced that Ukraine received the first three Gepard anti-aircraft guns, which are already at the disposal of the Ukrainian army.