- An arms dealer said he sold 49 Leopard 1 tanks to an unnamed EU country to send to Ukraine.
- Some of the tanks will be used for spare parts, with the rest arriving in the next six months, he said.
- German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that arms maker Rheinmetall bought the tanks.
An unidentified EU country purchased 49 secondhand Leopard 1 tanks to send to Ukraine, according to an arms dealer who said he sold the armored vehicles.
Freddy Versluys, CEO of private defense company OIP Land Systems, told The Guardian he sold the tanks that once belonged to Belgium to a major European nation, but was unable to name the country publicly.
Versluys also said he was not able to reveal the price of the deal, but The Guardian reported he previously bought 50 decommissioned Leopard 1 tanks from Belgium for just over $40,000 each.
German newspaper Handelsblatt, meanwhile, reported that the Leopard 1 tanks were bought by German arms maker Rheinmetall for use in Ukraine, and that the deal involved 50 tanks.
Rheinmetall declined to comment to The Guardian or Reuters.
Ukraine began receiving deliveries of Leopard tanks from its allies in February 2023, after months of asking for advanced armored vehicles.
Ukraine argued that the tanks were necessary to make progress against Russian forces, but many of its Western allies initially hesitated.
Even after agreeing to send the tanks, progress has been slow. Only 10 of the 110 Leopard 1 that Germany has promised to Ukraine have been delivered as of this month, German newspaper Die Welt reported.
And the Kiel Institute for the World Economy reported in July that only around half of the heavy weaponry promised to Ukraine has been delivered.
Versluys told The Guardian that it could be up to six months before the Leopard 1 tanks were on the battlefield in Ukraine. He said some needed a lot of repair work, and over a dozen would be used for spare parts.
Handelsblatt reported that about 30 will ultimately end up in Ukraine.
Older tanks, once discarded as obsolete, are now in high demand, The Guardian reported, given battlefield needs.
Ukraine’s allies say they are running out of stockpiled weapons for Ukraine and can’t manufacture them fast enough, causing some to look to older or decommissioned equipment.
Ukraine said last month that Russia’s defenses have limited the effectiveness of tanks, with Russian forces laying dense minefields and other traps. In some cases, Ukraine’s troops have left armored vehicles to try to cross minefields on foot.
Experts say that the West’s hesitancy to send tanks to Ukraine gave Russia the time to build up its defenses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that he had wanted Ukraine’s counteroffensive to start “much earlier” but felt he had to wait for more weapons to arrive.
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