The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, during the talks between the presidents of Ukraine and the US, Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Joe Biden, told journalists how many battalions of Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 tanks they plan to form in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As for the Leopard 2, Reznikov is confident that Ukraine will receive at least two battalions of these main battle tanks. In addition, he also notes that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will probably have six or seven battalions of the Leopard 1 tanks with ammunition.
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Ukraine's tank brigade consists of 93 vehicles, consequently the battalion will have 31 tanks.
So, taking into account the two battalions announced by Reznikov (62 tanks), then according to preliminary calculations, in the conditional "first batch" (including those countries that definitely agreed to provide Ukraine with the Leopard tanks) we have up to 49 Leopard 2 tanks. Namely 17 units on the Leopard 2A6 from Germany (14) and Portugal (3), as well as 30-32 units of the 2A4 version from Poland (14), Norway (8), Spain (4-6 tanks) and Canada (4).
But at the same time, Defense Express notes that the Minister of Defense of Germany Boris Pistorius previously reported that Poland actually plans to allocate 30 Leopard 2A4 tanks, but 16 of them need time for repair and restoration and will not be quickly sent to Ukraine. And if we take into account these 16 tanks, then in total, with 49 from the first batch, we have exactly 65 machines, which is a little more than two tank battalions.
As Mr. Reznikov notes, he hopes that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive Leopard 2 tanks by April. Defense Express reminds that currently Ukraine’s tank operators are already mastering these tanks in Poland, and the Ambassador of Ukraine's to Germany Oleksiy Makeyev published a video of the first shot by Ukraine’s servicemen from a Leopard 2 tank.
Regarding the Leopard 1, Mr. Reznikov talks about six to seven battalions: that's 186-217 units, if count by the tank brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Or at least 2 brigades. Earlier there was news that the German government approved the delivery of 178 Leopard 1 tanks, but at the same time, their delivery may take a long time due to the long time needed for restoration.
In addition, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine noted that also Challenger tanks are about to be supplied as well (14 units from Great Britain) along with the Abrams, and French AMX-10 wheeled tanks.
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