Ukraine can possibly get their hands on some German Leopard 1 Main Battle Tanks as Rheinmetall’s chief executive Armin Papperger expressed that the company was ready to provide 50 Leopard 1 tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. If approved by the German Government, it could take just 6 weeks before it would be delivered.

According to Papperger last Monday in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt business newspaper, the 1st batch of the decommissioned tanks could be delivered in 6 weeks, with the rest of the tanks to follow in three months. The transfer would also involve the company’s subsidiary, Rheinmetall Italia.

These tanks were returned to Germany by countries that previously used the tanks and are not currently used by the German Armed Forces as the Bundeswehr uses the Leopard 2.

However, some German politicians have said that it would take too long for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to be trained to use Western munitions and argued that it was better to send equipment they could already operate. These politicians do have a point, as the Russian forces are already seen to be setting up their invasion in the eastern region of Donbas.