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Over 100 Ukrainian service personnel have started training on Leopard 1 battle tanks this week, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told Spanish publication La Vanguardia.
The delivery of 80 Leopard tanks of the older model will begin in the second half of 2023, the minister said in an interview published on April 28.
Germany has already delivered 18 modern Leopard 2 tanks and around 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine, confirmed Pistorius.
Earlier, Pistorius told Die Welt that NATO countries planned to send two battalions of German Leopard 2 battle tanks and four battalions of Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine.
The 160 tanks account for roughly half the 300 tanks requested by Ukraine for its expected spring/summer counteroffensive.
Defense Minister: ‘Tank coalition’ meets at Ramstein, agrees to open service center for Leopard tanks
A coalition of countries that have delivered or pledged tanks to Ukraine met at the 11th Ramstein summit in Germany on April 21, according to Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
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