Ukraine will receive first Leopard companies by summer - Polish Ambassador Cichocki

Ambassador of Poland to Ukraine Bartosz Cichocki shared the information with Espreso TV.

He noted that Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was the one who stressed the need to provide Leopard to Ukraine, as in Poland such decisions are made by the government. President Andrzej Duda spoke about Leopard tank supply in Ukraine. This, according to Bartosz Cichocki, accelerated the decision by other states.

"We are working now, and another ‘Ramstein’ summit will take place in Brussels. We will persuade those states that have Leopard tanks to join this coalition. When Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Mariusz Błaszczak was in Kyiv on Friday, there was a video conference at your Ministry of Defense with Minister Oleksii Reznikov, of course. There, many countries provided information on who would be sending tanks and their number," the ambassador said.

Bartosz Cichocki added that this week in Poland the training of Ukrainian soldiers on Leopard tanks has started.  According to him, this process is complicated, as it is necessary to provide the soldiers with ammunition, equipment, logistics, and repair services. 

"These are very good vehicles, but they are vulnerable to accidents, and it makes no sense to provide just the tanks themselves. In the course of training, it is important to understand not only how the tank works, but also how tank units cooperate with each other - this is the most difficult thing. We still need a little more time, but I think the first Leopard companies will arrive in Ukraine by the summer," he emphasized.

• On January 25, Germany announced it would supply Ukraine 14 Leopard 2 tanks from the Bundeswehr and also allowed partner countries to provide Ukrainian defenders with German tanks from their own stocks. On the same day, Joe Biden officially announced the delivery of 31 American-made M1 Abrams tanks and other equipment to Ukraine.