Poland delivered the first four Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. “I came here today not only with words of support, but also with the knowledge that it is necessary to respond to this barbaric aggression with violence,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday in Kiev after a meeting with the Ukrainian president. , Volodymyr Zelenskyy. More Leopard main battle tanks would follow soon, Morawiecki said.
On the first anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine, the Prime Minister of Poland traveled to the neighboring country’s capital, where he laid flowers on the wall of the memorial to those who died in the war and also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told a meeting of the National Security Council in Warsaw that Ukrainian soldiers are being trained by Polish, Canadian and Norwegian instructors at the Leopard training center in Swietoszow.
Poland’s cooperation with Germany played an important role in the campaign, said Blaszczak. Both countries want to deliver 14 Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. Before that, Poland had put a lot of pressure on Germany in the discussion about deliveries. On January 11, President Andrzej Duda announced in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv that his country had decided to equip Ukrainians with Leopard main battle tanks.
A little later, the Polish government submitted a corresponding export request to the German federal government, which had to agree to the transfer of German tanks. In doing so, she continued to put pressure on Berlin. In the end, the federal government decided to supply 14 main battle tanks itself and approve the export order.
Morawiecki said in Kiev that Poland was also ready to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets if a coalition could be found to deliver the aircraft. Ukraine demands delivery of F-16 fighter jets from western allies.