By summer, Kyiv will receive dozens of additional Western tanks. Acting Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has announced that 80 Leopard 1A5 tanks will be ready for shipment to Ukraine by June 1.
Speaking to the Danish television channel TV2, the acting head of the defense department said that Denmark, together with Germany, is completing the preparation of military vehicles stored in warehouses, and also training Ukrainian crews on German training grounds. The training of tankers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to him, will take no more than a month.
TV2 says the tanks were decommissioned by the Danish army in 2005 and have been “collecting dust in the warehouses” of the country’s defense ministry for 18 years. The acting head of the defense department stressed that the combat vehicles, despite their age, are in good condition and will strengthen the combat power of the Ukrainian army in the future counteroffensive.
The German newspaper Der Spiegel confirms the words of the Danish official. The publication reports that in the near future, Troels Lund Poulsen, together with his German colleague Boris Pistorius, will check the training of Ukrainian tank crews at the training grounds.
As part of the EU Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine, separate military exercises will be organized in Germany with Leopard 1A5 tanks under the control of Ukrainian crews.
Recall that earlier the tanker exercises of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on more modern Leopard 2A4 tanks in Poland ended in an accident, as a result of which the German combat vehicle lost its turret.
Photos used: Adamicz/wikimedia.org
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