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< p _ngcontent-sc181="" class="news-annotation">Ukraine needs modern heavy weapons, including Leopard 2 tanks, to fight the invaders. units Western partners can provide, the better.

Moreover, a number of countries have already agreed to provide these tanks to Ukraine, in particular Poland. As for Germany, which is the producer of the Leopard 2, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius recently said he had instructed officials to check the country's Leopard 2 tank stocks. This is necessary so that the country can “act quickly” in the event of a “positive decision” to provide these tanks to our military.

How many tanks do European countries have

< p>WELT also conducted its own check of data on the number of Leopards in Germany and European countries. His brief conclusion: the battle tank coalition for Ukraine is full of pitfalls.

In total, 13 European countries currently own about 2,000 Leopard tanks. However, only a small part of them will be able to supply them to Ukraine. For example, Hungary with a more pro-Russian policy is unlikely to help our military with such weapons.

We also note that the Leopard 2 available in Europe is divided into four options: 2A4, 2A5, 2A6 and 2A7.< /p>

The number of Leopard tanks in Europe/Data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and WELT

Which of these Leopards Ukraine can get

< p>Of all these versions of tanks, Ukraine needs the most unified ones, because this will reduce the training time of the military, as well as ensure the consistency of logistics, maintenance and ammunition.

However, the most modern versions of these tanks, 2A6 and 2A7, form the basis of the corresponding armies of most European countries. Therefore, according to the publication, they are unlikely to want to transfer to Ukraine the most modern weapons necessary for their own defense.

Therefore, the possibility of transferring older 2A4 and 2A5 models seems more realistic.

The Leopard 2A4 is the oldest main battle tank still in service. But it still has advantages over the tanks Ukraine has had since Soviet times, military experts wrote in an IISS analysis.

However, there are certain difficulties here, in particular, related to:

• the technical condition of the vehicles over the years of storage,
• the possibility of supplying them, because they are the main battle tank of the army.

For example, Greece, which owns more than 180 units, did not talk about its readiness to supply Leopard to Ukraine. Do not forget, as noted in WELT, that she herself is in an arms race with enemy Turkey, which has almost 300 Leopard 2A4s.

According to WELT, Europe is unlikely to be able to provide the 300 necessary Leopards to Ukraine. And even the delivery of 100 tanks “is still a problem.” And it is doubtful how many tanks are actually ready for action in the near term.

“It can be assumed that about 100 Leopard tanks will be needed to decisively change the fighting. A smaller number would deserve political attention, but nothing more than a symbolic gesture” , – the authors of IISS noted.

The main advantages of Leopard tanks/Channel 24 infographics