Eduardo González
Spain has begun a second transport of ten 'Leopard' 2A4 battle tanks to Ukraine. With these, there are now twenty tanks of this type sent by our country since the invasion of Russia, which will be joined by a new group in the second half of 2024.
As reported yesterday by the Ministry of Defense, the multimodal transport to Ukraine of ten 'Leopard' 2A4 battle tanks has already begun, after completing an exhaustive process of repair, tuning and readiness at the Santa Bárbara factory, in Alcalá de Guadaira (Seville), and have passed the corresponding tests to verify its full operability.
The first phase of transportation, from Seville to Ferrol, was carried out by land last week. Once boarded on a Ro-Ro ship for the second phase of transport, by sea, the ship left Ferrol at noon last Saturday, July 13.
The tanks are scheduled to arrive at a Polish port before next weekend. Once in Poland, its protected transportation by land will begin, to the point of delivery to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. These will be in charge of the last phase of movement through Ukraine until they are made available to the operational units of the Ukrainian Army. In all phases of this important movement, security measures are being tightened, according to Defense.
With this new shipment of 'Leopard' 2A4 battle tanks, Spain has donated a total of twenty of these tanks to Ukraine and another new set is planned to be prepared or donated during the second half of 2024.
On May 20, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, announced before the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine - convened by the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin, and which was attended by the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov - that Spain would deliver a second batch of 'Leopard' battle tanks and new 'Patriot' anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine at the end of June.
Spanish support for Ukraine in the long term, Robles added, would be supported by the bilateral security agreement between Spain and Ukraine, which was signed seven days later in Madrid by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of Ukraine, Volodimir. Zelensky. Based on this agreement, similar to that signed by Ukraine with other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark or Canada, Spain undertakes to supply military equipment ('Patriot', 'Leopard' or Spanish-made products, such as artillery projectiles, anti-drone systems and portable rocket launchers) valued at 1,129 million euros in 2024 alone.
...
