Ukraine will receive “between 120 and 140” Western heavy tanks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba said on Tuesday, a few days after the Westerners gave the green light to such deliveries, after long procrastination.
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“In the first wave of contributions, the Ukrainian armed forces will receive between 120 and 140 modern tanks of Western models,” the minister said in a video on Facebook, recalling that these were German-designed Leopard 2s, British Challenger 2 and American Abrams.
This is the first time that kyiv has revealed the total number of these tanks that its Western allies have promised it.
In recent days, several countries have expressed their intention to quickly supply these vehicles to Ukraine, like the United Kingdom which intends to supply Challengers at the end of March and Germany which intends to send its first Leopard 2s “at the end of March At the beginning of April “.
Washington, for its part, announced the dispatch of 31 Abrams.
But the delivery process could take months, according to several chancelleries, between upstream repair and maintenance needs, in addition to the training of Ukrainian soldiers on these models which they have never used in the field before.
In addition to these logistical problems, other countries, such as France, are hesitating at this stage before sending their stock of heavy tanks to Ukraine, fearing in particular a possible weakening of their military capabilities.
Ukraine has already received foreign tanks in recent months, including more than 250 modernized versions of the Soviet T-72 from Poland, but so far the West has been wary of sending their modern models out of fear. that this does not provoke a new Russian escalation.