Twelve of the 20 Leopard 1A5 tanks Denmark donated to Ukraine suffered technical problems, of which at least two were severely damaged and had to remain in Poland.
Danish media on September 22 quoted the content of a handwritten report sent by Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen to allies, in which he admitted that 60% of the Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks that Denmark provided to Ukraine were damaged or had technical problems at various levels.
Denmark announced two weeks ago that it would send a total of 20 Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine. Mr Poulsen said 10 had arrived in Ukraine with minor damage and were being repaired by local technicians. The remaining 10 remained in Poland, with at least two tanks severely damaged.
Ukrainian soldiers train on Leopard 1 tanks in Germany in May. Photo: Reuters
In the report, Defense Minister Poulsen wrote that the Ukrainian military has not yet trained mechanics capable of repairing major damage to Leopard 1A5 tanks. That means the German Defense Ministry and the company FFG, responsible for overhauling the Leopard 1A5 series in Germany, will have to start the process of fixing the problem next week.
The Danish Defense Ministry and Ukrainian officials have not commented on the information.
Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands announced in February that they would provide at least 135 Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine, as well as training soldiers to operate them, providing logistics, spare parts and ammunition.
The Leopard 1 tank was developed by Germany in the 1950s and 1960s, and began production and service in 1965. The Leopard 1A5 variant was an upgrade of the first model and is now nearly 60 years old. Germany later retired the Leopard 1 and replaced it with the Leopard 2 main battle tank.
Many German officials believe that the Leopard 1A5 could be a useful alternative to the Leopard 2A6, a much more expensive main battle tank with limited availability. Some Western experts also believe that the Leopard 1 is still superior to Soviet-era main battle tanks such as the Russian T-72, adding that they will be effective after being refurbished.
Germany has delivered two batches of Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine, but many of them were also defective. Der Spiegel reported on September 19 that Ukraine refused to accept 10 German Leopard 1A5 tanks at a handover ceremony in Poland after discovering that they were damaged and that Kiev did not have enough engineers or spare parts to repair them itself.
Vu Anh (According to TV2 )
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