As of: 09/16/2022 6:49 p.m
Greece will deliver 40 Soviet-designed BMP-1 tanks to Ukraine. For this, the country gets 40 Marder armored personnel carriers from Germany. The Ministry of Defense in Athens confirmed the start of the ring exchange.
The federal government has agreed with Greece on a ring exchange to supply Ukraine with additional armored personnel carriers. Greece is supplying Ukraine with 40 Soviet-designed BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, while Athens is receiving 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles from Germany from industrial stocks, according to the German Defense Ministry.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht and her Greek counterpart Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos had agreed on this. Implementation will begin immediately.
No additional training necessary
The Greek Ministry of Defense confirmed the start of the ring exchange and the number of armored personnel carriers that Germany will supply to Greece and Greece will send to Ukraine. With the BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle, Ukraine is getting a “battle-tested weapon system that is the best known to them,” it said from Berlin.
The idea of ring exchange came up shortly after the beginning of the Ukraine war. The Ukrainian armed forces should thus be quickly supplied with Soviet systems for which they do not need any additional training. The countries that hand over the Soviet weapons are to be supplied with Western makes in return.