09:43 PM
Saturday 04 February 2023
Bratislava – (dpa):
Poland has already started training Ukrainian personnel to operate German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks, Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak was quoted as saying by media reports.
His comments came in response to German media reports that several NATO countries were reneging on promises to deliver Leopard 2s to Ukraine.
Polish news agency BAP reported on Friday that Blaszczak had traveled to Kyiv to discuss plans to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.
The minister said that Poland is already training Ukrainian soldiers in Poland to use these tanks. He said that while it was not yet possible to say exactly how much time this would require, it would “not be a matter of days, not months”, but rather “a matter of weeks”.
Ways to deliver the tanks themselves will be discussed with NATO allies at a meeting in mid-February, Plashchak told the Ukrainian leadership in Kyiv.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov and President Volodymyr Zelensky personally thanked him for Poland’s key role in making the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine possible.
It is noteworthy that Poland is one of Ukraine’s most prominent allies at a time when Kyiv is trying to repel Moscow’s invasion and restore its lands.
Kyiv has repeatedly called for obtaining heavy weapons in greater numbers from Western governments, but many of them hesitated before making a commitment to that after months of discussions on the issue of providing modern combat tanks.
