BERLIN Feb 14 The Netherlands and Denmark will not participate in the so-called «tank alliance» of countries supplying more modern Leopard models to Ukraine, the Welt newspaper reports, citing a response from government circles.
«Countries that were once ready to supply have completely refused to participate. The governments of the Netherlands and Denmark have indicated that neither country will supply the Leopard 2,» the publication reports.
As compensation, according to Welt, the mentioned countries expressed their readiness to take part in the repair and preparation of Leopard 1 combat vehicles.
Berlin previously announced plans to create a «tank alliance» that could supply two battalions to Ukraine Leopard 2 tanks, which is about 90 combat vehicles in the German military interpretation and 60 in the Ukrainian one. Later, the government stated that the «battalion» should be understood precisely from the point of view of the country where the tanks are delivered.
Currently there are 14 German, 14 Polish, 4 Canadian, 3 Portuguese and 8 Norwegian Leopards in 2 different model ranges.
On Tuesday German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called the situation around the announced delivery of the newest Leopard 2 to Kyiv by Germany and other countries not very «intoxicating» with its success.
Earlier, Russia sent a note to NATO countries because of 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, that the United States and NATO are directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine — not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy , other countries.