Country wants to deliver tanks to Ukraine
Spanish Leopards currently not usable
01/26/2023, 7:35 p.m
In three months, Germany wants to deliver the first modern Leopard 2A6 tanks to Ukraine. Spain also announces that it will send models to Eastern Europe. Only older 2A4 tanks that have been decommissioned for a long time come into question. Their condition is probably desolate.
The Leopard tanks that Spain wants to deliver to Ukraine must first be repaired. “We have already contacted the industry as there are a number of Leopard 2A4s in Zaragoza that have long been decommissioned,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles told reporters in Madrid. You have to “check which of them can be put into operation in order to plan the delivery”.
Following the German government’s decision, Spain also agreed to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine. However, the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has not yet given an exact number. That has to be discussed with the allies, said Robles.
Spain has a total of 108 Type 2A4 Leopard tanks, all of which were taken over used from Germany in 1995, initially on a rental basis. In 2006, ownership then passed to Spain for a good 15 million euros. 55 of these tanks are still in use in the two Spanish North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The remaining 53 are in Zaragoza. Robles let it be known last summer that the 2A4s in Zaragoza were in “an absolutely desolate condition” and not operational at all.
2A4 models intended more for the second auxiliary battalion
According to the federal government, Germany is sending Ukraine 14 Leopard 2 tanks of the more modern type 2A6 from Bundeswehr stocks – i.e. a company. The first of them should be in Eastern Europe in three months.
Overall, European partners want according to the Ministry of Defense “Quickly” assemble two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine. The first of these, according to Minister Boris Pistorius, with models that are as good as new and ready to use as quickly as possible. For the second battalion, which will probably take a little more time to assemble, Leopard 2A4s are being considered.
According to the federal government, Germany will grant partner countries that quickly deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine appropriate permits for transfer. Pistorius had previously announced that he would be speaking to Poland, Canada, Portugal and Norway in addition to Spain.