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Croatia Could Give Its M-84 Tanks to Ukraine, But Once Again It's Up to Germany

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Croatian M-84 / Open source illustrative photo
Croatian M-84 / Open source illustrative photo

Perhaps this initiative is not as reasonable as giving just more Leopard 2

Croatian government is considering supplying Ukraine with some of their M-84 tanks, a Yugoslav copy of the Soviet T-72. Instead, Zagreb would like to receive an equivalent in Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, according to Defence24.

As noted by the journalists, Croatia has been looking forward to replacing its M-84 with German tanks but it always received a no due to Berlin lacking vehicles to offer. Now that a "tank coalition" on providing tanks for Ukraine was established, the awaited upgrade to the Croatian tank fleet becomes an even more distant perspective. But now, here's the question: how many M-84 tanks does Croatia have and is there any point in sending them to Ukraine?

Read more: ​Which Country Has T-80U Tanks for Almost an Entire Tank Brigade and Would the Tanks to Be Sent to Ukraine

According to The Military Balance 2022, Croatian armed forces possess 75 units of M-84. Defence24 states that 4 of these are training vehicles, while the rest 71 are for actual combat. Yet, there is no reliable data on how many of them are combat-capable.

We also don't know how many of them Croatia managed to modernize to the M-84A4 Sniper version, which received a new engine, an updated fire control and sighting systems. The numbers could be either 16 or 32.

M-84 of the Croatian Armed Forces
M-84 of the Croatian Armed Forces / Open source illustrative photo

The intent of Croatia to "commend" Germany by procuring its main battle tanks is surely logical. Especially if we recall that the Croatian army also uses 13 PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers of German making.

Although it looks like in this particular case, instead of giving Warsaw Pact-era M-84s in a manner of already not-so-relevant "ring exchange" procedure, the Armed Forces of Ukraine would rather get some additional Leopard 2s from the tank coalition.

Read more: "Tank Per Franc" Or Who Has Almost a Hundred "Spare" Leopard 2 And a Plan How to Send Them to Ukraine