Ukraine plans to receive up to 500 NATO tanks. Against the background of statements by European leaders about their readiness to provide Ukraine with NATO-type tanks, it became known that in the course of preliminary discussions with European countries, Ukraine could receive a total of about 500 NATO tanks.
Considering that we are talking mainly about heavy Western combat vehicles, this could become an extremely serious escalation since the tanks are comparable in terms of their level of protection to the capabilities of Russian T-90 tanks.
Germany, Poland, Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, France, Spain, and Italy can become one of the largest suppliers of tanks to Ukraine. Moreover, there are serious concerns about the fact that Poland still has about 200 T-72 tanks in service, and about 50 tanks are in service with the Czech Republic, which creates an extremely negative situation.
At the same time, only Poland and Great Britain announced their real intentions to provide Ukraine with their tanks. However, we are talking about only a few dozen combat vehicles.
Experts note that the United States is categorically against providing Ukraine with American tanks, which in turn creates a conflict between Washington and Berlin, which also does not want to provide its heavy tanks to Ukraine, and therefore, there is a possibility that Kyiv will receive only about hundreds of western tanks.
Ukraine will be able to get only a few dozen Leopard 2 tanks from Finland. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö ruled out the transfer to Ukraine of all Leopard 2A4 tanks stored in the country.
Finland denied the transfer of 100 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine
According to the Finnish President, because Finland is a neighbor of Russia and is not yet part of NATO, transferring all tanks to Ukraine is impossible, and therefore the supply will be limited.
At the same time, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said that the supply of tanks to Ukraine would be possible only if a joint European project were created to supply weapons to Ukraine. Otherwise, Finland would not transfer tanks.
“If a joint European project to assist Ukraine is created, Finland’s contribution will also be required. However, the number of tanks transferred cannot be large since Finland borders Russia and is not yet a NATO member state., – said Finnish President Sauli Niinistö.
According to experts, Finland can provide Ukraine with about 30 Leopard 2 tanks; however, delivery dates are extremely uncertain – this is unlikely to happen before spring.