Germany to deliver 50 leopard tanks for Ukrainian army

Rheinmetall's company is reportedly preparing 50 units of used Leopard 1 battle tanks to Ukraine. The delivery of such tanks to Ukraine was carried out in stages over the next three months.

Rheinmetall Chief Executive Armin Papperger told the Handelsblatt newspaper, the shipment could be made through its subsidiary Rheinmetall Italia if it gets approval from the German government.

Some German government politicians say it takes time to train Ukrainian soldiers using the German-made leopard 1 tank.

Handelsblatt reported that politicians from German coalition governments, such as the Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats, supported the delivery of Leopard tanks to ukrainian armies.

The Ukrainian army had to be trained a little more intensively to use the Leopard 1 tank. said defense policy spokesman for the parliamentary group Free Democrats, Marcus Faber.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said weapons from Germany for Ukraine should be delivered as soon as possible, as Russian attacks from the east approached.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany has changed the old policy of not sending weapons to conflict zones. Berlin has supplied Kiev with anti-tank guns and missiles.

The Leopard 1 Rheinmetall battle tank is the first generation tank of the Leopard 2 currently used by the German armed forces. However, the leopard 1 tank is no less sophisticated than the latest leopard 2 tank.

However, experts doubt this, if indeed Germany supplies leopard tanks for the Ukrainian army, can it make the Ukrainian army proficient in using these tanks in a very short time?

Leopard tanks are of course different from Soviet-made tanks that may have been used by the Ukrainian army. What if The Russians seized the tank and studied the tank system?

To avoid this, the Ukrainian army had to be completely adaptable to the german leopard tanks and this took time to train the ukrainian army.