Poland ready to provide Ukraine with Leopard tanks, Lithuania pledges air defense

The Office of Poland’s President shared the information on Twitter.

"A company of Leopard tanks will be transferred to Ukraine as part of the formation of an international coalition. Such a decision has already been made in Poland," Andrzej Duda said during his visit to Lviv on Wednesday, January 11.

Andrzej Duda also called on all NATO countries to support Ukraine.

"This aggression must be stopped. This is one of the biggest challenges for the entire free world. All NATO countries must support Ukraine. We see this war with our own eyes. Ukraine will not defend itself without our support," he said.

In addition, the President of Lithuania stated that his country was ready to provide Ukraine with air defense systems and anti-aircraft systems, but did not specify which ones and in what amount.

"Today, I can say an important word for our defense, for our common defense - both Ukraine and the whole Europe. This word is "tanks". I welcome this decision made by Poland, made by Andrzej Duda and the government of Poland. I thank Lithuania, I personally thank Gitanas Nausėda for the decision to transfer anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine, which will strengthen the defense of our energy system, in particular from drone attacks," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a briefing.

He thanked Poland and Lithuania on behalf of all Ukrainians "for the willingness to be with us together until our victory. We will ensure it together - as brothers, as allies, as equals among others in the free world.”

According to NATO standards, a tank company has 14 vehicles. 

Poland has over 240 Leopard tanks, including 137 Leopard 2A4 tanks, 105 Leopard 2A5 tanks and less than 10 Leopard 2PL tanks.

• On January 10, Valeriy Riabykh, Development Director of the Defense Express information and consulting company, said on Espreso TV that there is a very high probability that the Ramstein summit will adopt a formula for the transfer of German Leopard 2 tanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

• On January 11, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the presidents of Poland and Lithuania Andrzej Duda and Gitanas Nausėda in Lviv. 

• Also in Lviv Zelenskyy paid tribute to the memory of Ukrainian soldiers killed in battles with Russian forces and held a coordination meeting on the state border defense and the current security situation in the northwestern regions of Ukraine.