Portugal To Provide Three Leopard 2 Tanks To Ukraine In March
During this year’s session of the Bial Clinical Medicine Award ceremony at the University of Porto Medical Faculty, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced that Lisbon is ready to supply three Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev next month. In his speech to parliament the same day, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa confirmed President Sousa’s intention. In his speech, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa stated, “We are currently implementing a recovery and maintenance plan for the Leopard 2 tanks, and according to the plan, we are in a position to to ship three of them in March.”
Prime Minister Costa first stated to the Lusa news agency on February 4 that Portugal would send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine during his visit to the Portuguese military mission in the Central African Republic. Costa stated at the time that he was negotiating with Germany to obtain spare parts needed to repair some of Portugal’s Leopard tanks. The prime minister responded to journalists’ questions about the fact that many Leopard 2 tanks had been neglected for many years by calling it “an exaggeration,” pointing out that sending tanks to Ukraine would not jeopardize Portugal’s national military capacity in terms of equipment.
Portugal currently has 37 Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks, all of which were purchased from the Dutch Army in 2008. However, most of these tanks are only partially operational. According to local media, even fully operational tanks are unprepared for the operational and terrain conditions that await them on the battlefield in Ukraine. This is why Portugal is providing so little initial support to Ukraine in comparison to the number of Leopard 2A6 tanks in its inventory. According to Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Portugal’s contribution to this matter is “appropriate” and “good” when compared to other countries’ capacities.
With the exception of Portugal’s Leopard tanks, Ukraine expects to receive 120-140 Western tanks in the coming days from a coalition of 12 nations as part of its “first wave” tank deliveries. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced that these tanks will include the German-made Leopard 2, the British Challenger 2, and the American Abrams, and that they are confident that France will also provide Leclerc tanks. Ukraine anticipates 31 American Abrams tanks, over 30 Leopard 2 tanks, 14 from Germany and Poland, and 3 from Portugal, as well 4 from Canada. Finland, which has nearly 200 Leopard 2 tanks in its inventory, Norway, which has 52 Leopard 2A4 tanks, Spain and the Netherlands, which have a total of 327 Leopard tanks, 108 of which are old 2A4 type tanks, are among the countries ready to provide Ukraine with tanks when official decisions are made in accordance with their own internal procedures.
Header image: The Leopard 2 tank arriving in Poland, destined for Ukraine (Canadian Armed Forces)