German companies are ready to supply more than 100 tanks to Ukraine, including Leopard armored tanks and modified British Challenger 1s, according to a Handelsblatt report citing German industry sources.
According to the publication, Germany may send to Ukraine Leopard 2 tanks that were initially intended for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Ukraine is urgently asking the West to send heavy tanks as the defense ministers of the United States and Germany prepare to face off in Ramstein over supplying the country with weapons that Kyiv says could decide the outcome war.
The German company Rheinmetall has said since the first months of the war in Ukraine that it can deliver armored vehicles such as Leopard and Marder to Kyiv. “The first Leopard 1 could be delivered in six weeks,” the head of the Dusseldorf-based arms industry said in statements to the Handelsblatt newspaper last April.
These are older main battle tanks, retired from German army service and taken back by the company. This is common practice in the gun industry. Tanks will need to be inspected and modernized. However, Kyiv wants the most modern version of the tank, the Leopard 2, which is still in service with the Bundeswehr.
