A German military Leopard 2A6 main battle tank. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army)
Ukraine will only receive half a battalion of more modern Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks from its allies, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on February 15.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels where a meeting of NATO’s leaders was being held, the minister said that no new commitments to supply Leopard 2A6 tanks had been made at a meeting of the so-called tank coalition.
Late in January, the German government announced it would make 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks available for Kiev forces. Later in February, Portugal said that it would provide four additional Leopard 2A6s.
“We won’t have enough for a battalion,” Pistorius said. “We will deliver half of the [Leopard 2] A6 battalion and one [Leopard 2] A4 battalion. And before the beginning of next year, they will be joined by more than 120 Leopard 1 A5 [tanks] which should not be underestimated.”
The Leopard 2A4 is armed with the Rh-120 L/44 120 mm gun, while the newer 2A6 is armed with the more lethal Rh-120 L/55 gun of the same caliber. The 2A6 is also equipped with improved armor. Bothe versions are powered by MTU MB 873 Ka-501 liquid-cooled V12 twin-turbo diesel engine with 1,479 hp and can reach a top speed of up to 70 kilometers per hour.
Pistorius noted that to date, there are almost 30 Leopard 2A4 tanks available for supply to Ukraine. 14 of the tanks will be provided by Poland, while the rest will reportedly come from Canada, Spain and Norway.
Sweden is reportedly still checking whether it is capable of providing any of its Strv 121s, which are based on the Leopard 2A5, and if so, how many.
According to the German defense minister, the Netherlands will participate only in supplying ammunition for the tanks while Denmark is still considering its options.
Pistorius said that in the end, five to six tank battalions will be delivered, without specifying the particular models. The minister stressed that given the tank’s technical condition, from late March through the end of April, only the “majority” of Leopard 2 tanks would be delivered to the Kiev regime. Meanwhile, Germany’s 14 units will be sent to Ukraine no later than the last week of March.
Ukrainian troops have already begun an extensive training course on Leopard 2 tanks in both Germany and Poland. The training should end before the deliveries.
The Leopard 2 is being promoted by the mainstream media as some “Wunderwaffe”. However, the tank’s design came under much criticism in 2016, when at least eight Leopard 2A4s of the Turkish military were destroyed by ISIS terrorists in the northern region of Syria with Soviet-made anti-tank guided missiles.
Ukraine allies hope that the delivery of the Leopard 2s and other Western-made tanks, like the British Challenger 2 and American M1A2 Abrams, will help Kiev forces launch large-scale offensive against the Russian military next Spring.
