Ukrainian tankers will start training on Leopard 2 in a few days — Błaszczak

Ukrainian tankers will start training with Leopard 2 tanks in Poland in the coming days.

Mariusz Błaszczak, Minister of Defense of Poland, informed about this on February 3, 2023.

Mariusz Błaszczak made his statement during a joint press conference of the Ministers of Defense of Ukraine and Poland.

The heads of the defense departments of Ukraine and Poland discussed strengthening the capabilities of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. In particular, they talked about the training missions’ conducting for the Ukrainian military on the territory of Poland.

“Ukraine is waiting for the strengthening of the Russian offensive, so obtaining heavy weapons that will be able to protect Ukrainian soldiers is very important, and this is a key issue. The most important thing now is to start training Ukrainian soldiers on these tanks. Such training will begin in Poland in just a few days,” Polish Minister of Defense Mariusz Błaszczak said.

“A free Ukraine is a guarantee of a free Poland. The late President Lech Kaczyński spoke about this back in 2008. The whole world, Poland and Europe should try to stop it. That’s why we support Ukraine,” Mariusz Błaszczak said.

Previously, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki reported that Poland is ready to hand over Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

Warsaw will provide 14 German-made Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks.

“We are ready to send 60 of our modernized tanks, 30 of which are PT-91. And in addition to these tanks, 14 Leopard 2 tanks,” Mateusz Morawiecki said.

The German government allowed the transfer of Polish Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and agreed to the re-export of these tanks from other countries.

Poland is negotiating on the establishment of a coalition of Leopard 2A4 tanks donors to Ukraine.

At the initiative of the Mariusz Błaszczak, Minister of Defense of Poland, negotiations were held among the Leopard 2A4 tank-owning countries.

“We have held negotiations among countries that own Leopard 2A4 tanks to jointly create a coalition of donors of modern armored weapons for Ukraine,” said Mariusz Blaszczak.