The largest European countries of the Alliance announced new packages of assistance to Ukraine with weapons on the NATO summit in Vilnius. In particular, France will transfer SCALP cruise missiles, and Germany and the UK have formed packages of armored vehicles, additional air defense systems and ammunition.
In particular, Germany plans to transfer weapons totaling 600 million euros, namely: two Patriot launchers, 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and 25 Leopard 1 tanks, as well as one Luna UAV complex. This is the composition of the aid package announced by the Minister of Defense of Germany Boris Pistorius.
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It should be noted that the provision of Leopard 1 tanks in a fairly short time was expected, in particular that the first batch of these vehicles should arrive within a few weeks in early July.
But the transfer of 40 Marder IFVs at once looks like an extremely rather significant increase, because the delivery of the first batch of 40 vehicles ran into certain difficulties at the beginning of the year. At the same time, the first Marder IFVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were seen in March, and according to the plan, 20 vehicles were supposed to come from the Bundeswehr, and another 20 from Rheinmetall warehouses.
In June, it was reported that Rheinmetall had received an order from the German government for the supply of another 20 vehicles to Ukraine. And it is possible that the new party also consists of 20 vehicles from the defense company and 20 from the Bundeswehr.
In turn, the United Kingdom transfers to Ukraine 70 combat and logistics vehicles, without specifying the type and name, additional ammunition for Challenger 2 tanks, as well as an additional 50 million pounds (about $65 million) for the repair of equipment.
It should be recalled that the UK provided about a hundred tracked FV430 Bulldog armoured fighting vehicles and Mastiff mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles at the beginning of 2023.
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