Ten more German-made Leopard 2 tanks would arrive in Ukraine this week, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said at a news conference on March 7, cited by Reuters.
Poland has led Western efforts in providing Ukraine with modern Leopard main battle tanks, having delivered the first batch on Feb. 24. In total, Warsaw pledged to supply 14 Leopard 2 tanks.
The Polish defense minister also told reporters that his country was ready to launch a maintenance center for Leopard tanks transferred to Ukraine.
Ahead of a meeting of European Union defense ministers in Sweden, Blaszczak said he would talk to his German counterpart Boris Pistorius about "the low availability of spare parts for Leopard tanks."
According to Blaszczak, this problem could be tackled mainly by the German arms industry, but Poland is also ready to manufacture the spare parts.
Pistorius said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk on Feb. 26 that NATO could likely provide Ukraine with a total of 62 German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks.
After months of delay, Germany finally agreed to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and allowed the re-export of the same models from other countries on Jan. 25.
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