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German Army Type 2A6 Leopard 2 tank
Photo: Christian Charisius / dpa
Sweden is participating in European support for Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.
According to SPIEGEL information, the government in Stockholm wants to provide a total of ten Type 2A6 and 2A5 Leopard tanks for the planned equipment of two Ukrainian tank battalions, which was announced by Germany, among others, at the end of January.
The Swedish government initially did not want to confirm the move on Friday morning.
The Ministry of Defense said only that a package with "new support" for the Ukrainian army should be announced in the afternoon.
The Leopard tanks, called
Stridsvagn
in Sweden , could primarily be used to complement the tank package that Germany is currently putting together for Ukraine.
Berlin had promised the delivery of 14 Type 2A6 models from Bundeswehr stocks for the battalion, which is to be equipped with 31 Leopard 2 tanks.
Since the end of January, the federal government has been admonishing the European partners who have Leopard 2 models to make commitments for deliveries.
To this end, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Defense Minister Poris Pistorius and Foreign Minister Annelana Baerbock held numerous talks during the Munich Security Conference at the end of last week.
So far, only Portugal has announced that it will deliver three Leopard 2A6 tanks, Spain wants to repair six older 2A4 Leopard tanks and then make them available to Ukraine – but that will take time.
There were also reports from Poland on Friday that the first Leopard tanks had been delivered to Ukraine.
These are older models of the type 2A4.
The government in Warsaw should equip a battalion with tanks of this type.
"We try to be a role model," said Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
As promised, his country is providing 14 Leopard 2 tanks.
Pistorius speaks of "announcement world champions"
During his speech in Munich, Scholz indicated that he was disappointed that the partners had not made any commitments.
In the weeks leading up to the decision to send main battle tanks to Ukraine, the German government was under massive international pressure.
Poland in particular accused Berlin of slowing down other nations in their support of Ukraine with Leopard tanks because Berlin has to issue a permit for every export of weapon systems manufactured in Germany.
After the federal government had decided to supply its own tanks, there were hardly any commitments, especially for the delivery of the modern Leopard 2A6 model.
Minister Pistorius therefore spoke last Monday of "announcement world champions".
He again appealed to all European partners to seriously reconsider the supply of Leopard tanks.
