BRUSSELS Feb 2 The Ukrainian military will train tankers for the Leopard 2 tanks, which are planned to be delivered to Kyiv, said the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
“As part of the EU military assistance mission in Poland and Germany, we plan to train 15,000 troops by April, and then an additional 15,000, including for the use of tanks such as the Leopard 2,” Borrell wrote in an article for Project syndicate .
Earlier it was reported that the European Union intends to allocate an additional 45 million euros to expand the mission to train the Ukrainian military.
The German government announced at the end of January that it had decided to transfer German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Germany intends to form two tank battalions. At the first stage, they plan to provide a company of 14 Leopard 2 type A6 from the stocks of the Bundeswehr.
German Chancellor Scholz, shortly before making a decision on the supply of tanks, pointed out that Berlin's readiness to take such a step depended on whether partners in the face of Washington and NATO allies would make the same decision. But the first government to publicly announce a positive decision was precisely the German one, and only after that did a similar statement by US President Joe Biden follow.
Russia sent a note to NATO countries over arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia. The Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation stated that the NATO countries are «playing with fire» by supplying weapons to Ukraine. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov noted that pumping Ukraine with weapons from the West does not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and will have a negative effect. jpg» />January 29, 13:00Infographic
Leopard 2: German main battle tankInfographicView