EU nations to give Ukraine more tanks

Germany, along with Denmark and the Netherlands, will supply 77 more Cold-War-era Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has announced. In addition, Berlin intends to provide an additional twelve PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers to Kiev, he said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz approved the delivery of German-made tanks to Ukraine back in January 2023. Though the number of the tanks that Kiev has since lost is unknown, the Russian military has released numerous videos showing the destruction of the hardware.

Pistorius met with Vladimir Zelensky at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group at US Ramstein military base in Germany on Friday. Zelensky personally attended in a bid to drum up more defense aid from his Western backers. The German minister assured him leader that Berlin “remains in a continuous delivery process for Ukraine.”  

Pistorius estimated that Germany, together with Denmark, had already delivered 58 Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine, with 77 more pieces of this hardware to be supplied in the near future.  

“We will deliver twelve modern PzH 2000 howitzers to Ukraine, with six expected to arrive in the country by the end of this year,” Pistorius added.  

He went on to say that air defense remains a crucial area for Kiev and that more hardware is needed to better fend off Russian missile strikes. According to the minister, Germany is funding the purchase of twelve IRIS-T air defense systems to be shipped to Ukraine. Moreover, Berlin has pledged more medium- and close-range systems, including more than 60 self-propelled Gepard anti-aircraft guns. 

Pistorius also claimed that since November 2022, more than 16,000 Ukrainian service members have been trained on German soil. 

In mid-July, the Bavarian daily Munchner Merkur, citing government data, claimed that Germany had secretly delivered a “huge” defense aid package to Ukraine between late June and early July. The package reportedly included ten Leopard 1A5 tanks, among other hardware.

The media outlet also alleged at the time that Berlin planned to send e 85 more of the same tanks to Ukraine by an unspecified date as part of a joint project with Denmark. 

Moscow has consistently warned that deliveries of Western weapons to Ukraine only serve to prolong the bloodshed, without changing the course of the conflict.