Spain will send six Leopard tanks to Ukraine

Defense Minister Margarita Robles confirmed on Wednesday in Congress that Spain will send six Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks to Ukraine and opened the door to increase that number “if necessary and allied countries request it”.

In the plenary session and in response to the challenge of the popular group, Robles also reported that the tanks, which will be integrated into the battalion with other countries, are being repaired to be modernized and he hoped that they could to be delivered in late March or early April.

The tanks were inside “very deficient use” in some army facilities, in Casetas (Zaragoza), and from the 50 stored there, “the ones that were better” were selected, Robles said in the corridors of Congress at the end of his speech.

Six tanks are already in the facilities of the Santa Bárbara company in Alcalá de Guadaíra (Seville) and repairs could be completed by the end of March, said Robles, who recalled that at the same time Spain trains 55 Ukrainian soldiers, 40 in operating tanks as a crew and 10 in their maintenancehe specified.

The intention of the Spanish government is to send the tanks to Ukraine together with “properly trained” crews, Robles pointed out, explaining that the delivery of Leopards “needed the approval of a certain government”, alluding to Germany, where they were manufactured. .

On the other hand, one year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, defense sources indicated that there was no danger of escalation and assured that Spanish soldiers will not fight in that countryalthough they urged caution in the coming days.

In her speech, the minister distanced herself from prudence and discretion in order not to announce the exact number of what was sent to Ukraine, “because I don’t want a person like Putin, who threatened the entire international community again yesterday and in the conditions in which he did it, rejecting even the possibility nuclear, maybe he has the slightest information.

However, it turned out that there were 54 transports of various materials to Ukraine, 42 of them by air, but also 9 by land and others by sea that you did not specify. It was stated in detail that these shipments included, among other materials, 190 rocket launchers, small arms and ammunitionmachine guns and missiles, heavy ammunition, tank and artillery ammunition, anti-aircraft material, missiles plus Hawk and Mistral launchers, howitzers, a deployable cyber defense operations control center, five naval systems, 10 light vehicles, 10 heavy vehicles, 4 light ambulances and one armored ambulance donated by Repsol, for which he thanked.

On the other hand, the minister also confirmed that Spain will be deployed from April and for four months a A battery of Nasams type anti-aircraft missiles in northern Estonia for the protection of its airspace on NATO’s eastern flank.

The news was announced by the authorities of that Baltic country after a recent meeting between Defense Minister Margarita Robles and her Estonian counterpart Hanna Pevkur at the headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance in Brussels. The shipment has the support of the Council of Ministers and is a response to the express request of the Estonian government, the minister assured.

In response to criticism from Rep. Fernando Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu about the defense’s lack of transparency in its communications policy, Robles demanded accountability. “Spain has always been very prudent on this issue, what I can tell you is that we are working in full coordination with our allies,” he said.

The minister avoided responding to a deputy’s request to reconsider his refusal to allow the popular leader, Alberto Núñez Feijoo, to visit Spanish troops deployed in Latvia, something he said must be promoted and never hindered. And as for Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu’s criticism of cracks within the coalition government regarding Spanish aid to Ukraine, Robles responded that the Spanish government is “firmly” committed to the Ukrainian people.