On Friday, Germany allowed its manufacturers to send Leopard 1 battle tanks to Ukraine, while Kyiv seeks to get more modern weapons to counter Russian forces, according to German government spokesman Steven Heppistreit. Berlin said it would supply Ukraine has 14 tanks. “Leopard 2” from their own army stocks, but some manufacturers also want to send tanks from their stocks.
When asked at a press conference about the Leopard 1 tanks, Hebstraight said, “I can confirm (…) that an export license has been issued,” declining to provide more details.
The Leopard 1 tanks first entered service in the 1960s and were preceded by the more advanced Leopard 2 tanks which are widely used by armies across Europe.
The newspaper Der Spiegel pointed out that the German decision included 29 Leopard 1 tanks stored in a munitions factory.
At the same time, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported that two factories wanted to refurbish dozens of Leopard 1 tanks for shipment to Ukraine, although they had problems purchasing ammunition.
According to German law, Berlin must approve the export of tanks, even if the other countries that bought them want to re-export them.
