The defense minister said on Wednesday she expected a decision on the deployment of the Portuguese army’s Leopard 2s “in the coming days”, but assured that Portugal would help Kiev develop its tank capability.
“Undoubtedly: Portugal will participate and help Ukraine develop its capability in this field of Leopard 2 tanks”the Lusa agency assured Helena Carreiras during a visit to the Association of the Disabled of the Armed Forces of Castelo Branco.
As for sending the tanks to Ukraine, the defense official said Portugal is still assessing availability and the impact the transfer of the Leopard 2 would have on the Portuguese military’s capabilities.
“I reaffirm that we are evaluating both our availability and its impact on our capabilities, but with due care and caution”he declared. “We must not lose any capabilities in this movement”he stressed.
The aim is to help Ukraine at the same time in cooperation with Western partners, but to prevent Portugal from losing capacity in terms of its defense, he added.
“We are doing that work and I hope we can make a decision in the next few days”needed.
Helena Carreiras said Portugal received “a few days ago” a “formal request from Ukraine” for tank training, and is also currently assessing the modalities in which this will take place.
The Defense Minister also reiterated Portugal’s willingness to help Ukraine develop this capability, recalling that the country has been doing this from the outset by offering training on these combat vehicles.
In a note last Friday, after the meeting of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine, which met in person that day in Ramstein, Germany, Helena Carreiras had already referred to “the offer to train in this type of combat vehicles” and spoke “the availability of the Portuguese government to find, in a coordinated manner with its partners, ways to support Ukraine with this capacity”.
On the same day, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces (CEMGFA), Admiral Silva Ribeiro, indicated that Portugal has 37 Leopard tanks, but declined to comment on how many could be sent to Ukraine.
“About leopards, we have 37″said Silva Ribeiro at a joint press conference as part of NATO’s Military Committee Chairman Admiral Rob Bauer’s visit to Portugal.
The CEMGFA was also asked how many of these vehicles could ultimately be included in the aid package for Ukraine, but said it could not comment on “this matter” and referred to the communiqué released by the Ministry of National Defense.
Source: DN
