Portugal is willing to send Leopard 2 heavy tanks to Ukraine but must first work with Germany to restore some of its armor to working order, Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced on Saturday. “This logistical operation is underway and we are working very closely with Germany. In due course, we will be able to contribute to this collective effort to provide Ukraine with the best means to defend itself,” he told the Lusa agency, on the sidelines of a trip to the Central African Republic.
Information to remember:
- Portugal is willing to send Leopard 2 tanks to Russia
- France and Italy announced the future delivery of a surface-to-air defense system to kyiv, scheduled for spring
- Bodies of two British volunteers killed in Ukraine recovered in prisoner swap between Kyiv and Moscow
The number of armored vehicles “announced in due time”
After a green light from Berlin at the end of January, several Western countries promised to deliver German-made Leopard 2 tanks to kyiv. The number of armored vehicles that Lisbon could provide “will be announced in due course”, indicated Mr. Costa, adding that the European countries concerned wanted to be able to deliver this armament “before the end of March”.
The weekly Espresso reported last week that more than half of the Portuguese army’s 37 Leopard tanks were not in working order. “Some are not operational and, for this reason, we must work with those who produce them” to be able to supply tanks to Ukraine without compromising the capacities of Portugal, confirmed the Prime Minister.
Bodies of two British volunteers killed in Ukraine recovered
The bodies of two Britons, Christopher Parry and Andrew Bagshaw, killed in Ukraine where they had gone as volunteers, were recovered as part of a prisoner exchange between kyiv and Moscow, Ukrainian authorities said. “We managed to recover the bodies of dead foreign volunteers,” said Andriï Yermak, the head of the administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The return of the two men’s bodies came as part of an exchange of 116 Ukrainian prisoners and 63 Russians between Moscow and kyiv.
Christopher Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 48, were killed while attempting a humanitarian evacuation from the town of Soledar, the scene of intense clashes in early January and largely destroyed in shelling, the family confirmed in late January from Mr. Parry, via the UK Foreign Office. They had been missing for several weeks, and the leader of the Wagner group, Evguéni Prigojine, had indicated on January 11 that his fighters had found the body of one of them in Soledar. The Ukrainian army admitted on January 25 that it had surrendered to Russian forces Soledar, located not far from Bakhmout in the east of the country, which has become the epicenter of the fighting almost a year after the start of the invasion of the country. The Russians had claimed its capture for two weeks.
Contacted, the British Foreign Office was unable to react immediately.