Ukraine plans to ask Canada for Leopard battle tanks, Zelensky’s top adviser says

Ukraine plans to ask Canada for Leopard battle tanks, Zelensky’s top adviser says
# 16 January 2023 10:09 (UTC +04:00)

Ukraine is planning to ask Canada for some of its Leopard-2 main battle tanks, as soon as Germany drops its opposition to the re-export of the weaponry it manufactured, said Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview to The Globe and Mail, APA reports.

He said that Mr.Zelensky will make the request to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when the bureaucratic hurdle with Berlin is cleared.

Ukraine says it needs several hundred NATO-standard heavy tanks to push Russian troops off of its territory and bring an end to the nearly 11-month-old war. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, however, has thus far resisted pressure to allow the re-export of the German-made Leopards, fearing that providing NATO tanks to Ukraine could escalate the conflict.

Mr.Podolyak, however, was optimistic that Mr. Scholz’s government would eventually allow the Leopards to be transferred to Ukraine. Poland and Finland have already expressed their willingness to send some of their own Leopard-2 tanks to Ukraine, if and when Germany drops its objection. Canada, which has 82 Leopard-2s that it purchased from Germany in 2007, will be asked to do the same.

“Obviously, President Zelensky, who has friendly relations with the Prime Minister of Canada, will ask for heavy tanks. The first step of passing the armour should be up to Germany, because they are the owner of the technology. It should happen naturally, and Germany should take the lead in this process,” Mr.Podolyak said.

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