The Diplomat
Defense Minister Margarita Robles will travel today to Latvia to visit the Spanish contingent deployed at the Adazi base, which has six Leopard battle tanks similar to those to be sent to Ukraine. Besides, the Government is trying to tune the tanks stored in Zaragoza and has offered to train the Ukrainian crews in Spain.
The Spanish contingent, part of NATO’s deterrence mission against Russia, has had six Leopard battle tanks since its deployment in 2017, a year after the Alliance agreed at the Warsaw Summit to create a multinational Reinforced Forward Presence of a defensive and deterrent nature in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Spain has 600 soldiers in Latvia, 250 of which were sent after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On the other hand, Robles participated yesterday by videoconference in a meeting convened by the new German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorious, with the seven countries using the Leopard 2E tank to discuss the joint and coordinated shipment of the tanks and to prepare details such as deadlines, training, maintenance or logistical support for transport.
During this meeting, the Minister reiterated Spain’s “firm support” to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and offered to carry out in Spain the training of the crews of the Leopard 2A4 tank for a period of two months to two and a half months. This offer responds to a request in this sense of the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksiy Reznikov.
In the meantime, Robles told the press yesterday that the government has contacted the military industry to try to refurbish some of the Leopard 2A4s that have been stored for ten years in Zaragoza and “have been out of use for a long time”. “We are going to see which ones could be put into operation in order to plan the delivery” to Ukraine, she explained. The minister did not specify the number of tanks that Spain could supply to Ukraine and specified that this detail will be decided in coordination with the other allied countries. “It is not a matter of simply saying that we are sending, but that the shipment has to be accompanied by personnel who know how to maintain and sustain them and who know how to handle them, which is not easy,” she warned.
As for the criticisms of Unidas Podemos to the sending of the battle tanks, Robles declared that “we all want peace and that Putin’s illegitimate invasion, which is causing a lot of damage, to cease”. “What is important is Spain’s commitment to peace, the sending of material has always been to work for peace and to protect and defend the lives of Ukrainian citizens, who are being cruelly attacked by Putin,” she added.
