Poland will deliver 60 modernised tanks to Ukraine in the near future, including locally-made PT-91 Twardy models, Ukrainian presidential office head Andrii Yermak wrote on Telegram on Jan. 27.
The tanks will be delivered on top of the fourteen German-built Leopard 2 tanks that Warsaw pledged to Ukraine on Jan. 11, the transfer of which was only recently officially approved by Berlin.
In an interview with Canadian television channel CTV news, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that 30 of the tanks would be PT-91 Twardy models, with the remainder understood to be upgraded Soviet-built T-72 tank.
The PT-91 Twardy is a main battle tank based on the design of the T-72, the primary tank model operated by both sides in Russia's war against Ukraine.
Unlike other upgraded T-72 models, the Twardy was built from scratch in Poland with domestically produced parts between 1995-2002. Improvements over the T-72 design include better reactive armor, an improved autoloader, and a newly designed fire control system.
Warsaw had already delivered an unspecified number of Twardy tanks to Ukraine in July 2022.
Ukraine has also received hundreds of T-72 tanks since the full-scale invasion from the Polish Land Forces, which are undergoing a transition to Western-built tank models, including the Leopard 2, U.S.-built M1 Abrams, and South Korean K2 Panther.
The news comes amid a flurry of announcements of main battle tank deliveries to Ukraine, including dozens of Leopard 2 tanks from a coalition of European partners, as well as 31 Abrams tanks announced by the U.S. on Jan. 25.
Unlike these new Western tanks, the Polish Twardy tanks come with the advantage of needing very little time for transport and training, allowing them to swiftly boost the armored muscle of Ukrainian units in the field.
