live blog
Status: 04/22/2023 05:56 am
Spain intends to deliver six of the ten “Leopard” tanks it has promised to Ukraine in the coming days. In Lisbon, Ukrainians demonstrated on the occasion of the visit of Brazil’s President Lula. The developments in the live blog.
5:56 a.m
Spain wants to supply “Leopard” tanks to Ukraine
According to Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, Spain intends to deliver six of the ten Leopard tanks promised to Ukraine in the next few days. “After that there will be a second package with four more tanks,” Albares told the newspapers of the Funke media group. These are older type 2A4 “Leopard” tanks. “We will support Ukraine for as long as it needs,” Albares said, referring to Russia’s war of aggression. “This includes humanitarian aid, taking in refugees and supplying defensive weapons.” These were used for self-defense and to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
In the past few weeks, 55 Ukrainians have been trained as crew members and technicians on Leopard main battle tanks in Spain. In total, the country has 347 Leopard tanks. Of these, 108 belong to the older variant 2A4 and 239 to the newer type 2A6, which is called 2E in Spain. So far, however, Spain does not want to hand over any of these newer, more powerful tanks to Ukraine. They would be needed for their own national defense.
4/21/2023 • 10:52 p.m
Protests by Ukrainians in Portugal against Lula
On Friday evening in Lisbon, Ukrainians demonstrated in front of the Brazilian embassy on the occasion of the visit of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula arrived in Portugal on Friday for a five-day visit. His recent comments on the war in Ukraine drew criticism for implying that both Ukraine and Russia were to blame for the conflict. In recent days, however, Lula has condemned Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and once again called for an end to the war.