Press
For days now, NATO states have been outdoing each other with arms deliveries to Ukraine. Leopard 2 tanks will soon be among them again.
Kiev – They are rolling again in the Ukraine war: The immensely significant ones US arms supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces are on the way to the front. Thanks to $61 billion, military aid from other NATO states is also picking up speed again.
Leopard 2 tank: Ukraine receives supplies of “Leos” against Russia
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) refuses to release the Taurus cruise missile. While the little one Lithuania gave its last fighter plane to the Ukrainians The British are sending the infrared-guided Paveway IV glide bombs. The powerful ATACMS medium-range missiles are on their way to the battered country from the USA.
Now supplies for the squadron are even arriving Leopard 2 tanks the Ukrainian army. Like the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais reported on Friday (April 26), Madrid will soon hand over ten of a total of 19 promised Leopard 2 A4 tanks to the Ukrainians. It is the next signal of support: Kiev can urgently use every Western battle tank to defend the country against the Russian invasion troops of Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine’s losses: Many tanks remained against Putin’s Russian army
Because: Like that New York Times (NYT) As recently reported, the Russians have, among other things, disabled five of the 31 American Abrams tanks delivered in the past two months. According to the open source intelligence website Oryx, which documents military losses using photos and maps, for example, the Ukrainian armed forces had lost a total of 796 tanks by April 20th – including 30 German-made Leopard 2 tanks. According to estimates, Kiev received almost 140 tanks from the West. Many of them failed to fight against the army Russia actually already back on the battlefield, as evidenced by numerous photos and videos from bloggers on social media such as Telegram.
Recently, Ukraine has had to rely more heavily on old tanks from Soviet times again Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported that some newly formed brigades were no longer given tanks at all. In addition to the Spanish tanks, supplies are currently in the works: the Munich tank builder Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), which has been producing the “Leos” for decades, is currently preparing 14 more Leopard 2 A4s from German industrial stocks on behalf of and at the expense of the Netherlands and Denmark .
Weapons deliveries to Ukraine: Spain provides Patriot missiles
How El Pais continues, the Spanish arms package should be made available to Kiev by June 30th. The deliveries also include an unspecified load of Patriot missiles, but Madrid concludes that it does not want to deliver an entire anti-aircraft system. This is exactly what Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) last in the ARD-Broadcast “MaischbergerOther NATO partners asked: “If a country has, say, six Patriot systems, or four, and is not in the front line towards the East, it can easily hand over a Patriot system.”
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and he even wrote letters with identical requests to their respective counterparts. When moderator Sandra Maischberger asked whether he meant Spain and/or Greece, the defense minister replied: “We are currently talking to them.” Athens, for its part, publicly stated on Friday that it would not provide a Patriot air defense system. According to unconfirmed reports, the Greek Air Force is said to have 36 so-called Patriot launchers, i.e. launching devices.
Ukrainians’ Leopard 2: Putin has captured tanks demonstrated in Russia
As for the “Leopards”: In recent months, Russia’s army has been on a real Leopard tank hunt in Ukraine, documented by pathetic postings by Russian military bloggers on social media. For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a captured Leopard 2 A6 paraded as the tank was transported on a low-loader through western Russia to the capital Moscow – complete with malicious comments on social networks. Now Ukraine is getting more “Leos” again against Putin’s imperialism. (pm)