2024-03-30 19:06:08
At the beginning of 2023, Denmark promised Ukraine 100 Leopard tanks. The delivery still hasn’t arrived. Denmark points to Germany.
“If you have Leopard tanks, then give them to us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj demanded in January 2023. Denmark then made a big announcement: 100 Leopard-1 tanks were to go to Kiev – in cooperation with the Netherlands and Germany. Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in February 2023 that the tanks should be delivered to Ukraine “as quickly as possible” – ideally before the turn of the year.
However, it seems as if the plan didn’t work. It was only in September 2023 that the German Press Agency (dpa) reported the delivery of the first “Danish” Leopard tanks. According to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, only 30 tanks have actually arrived in Ukraine.
“Now we have the beginning of 2024, in this respect it is annoying that we are late,” Lund Poulsen told the Danish public broadcaster DR on Monday. However, according to Denmark’s Defense Minister, responsibility for the delay lies with Germany: “The reason is that we had problems repairing the tanks, the Germans were late in repairing them.” DR reported “technical problems.” Some of the tanks had not been in use for a long time and would have required repairs and inspection.
Ministry of Defense: Delivery “after overhaul”
Denmark had budgeted 130 million euros for the delivery of the tanks, Danish journalist Peter Rasmussen told NDR about a year ago. Boris Pistorius’ (SPD) Defense Ministry wrote of a “delivery from industrial stocks” – “after overhaul”.
According to the NDR report, the tanks stored in Flensburg were sold to the Flensburg medium-sized company FFG in 2010 for an approximate “scrap value” of 13,000 euros each. In view of the war in Ukraine, the buyback price probably rose sharply. There was talk of one million euros per tank. However, this remained unconfirmed.