Update – Ukraine conflict: Leopard 2A6 and Challenger 2 MBTs delivered to Kyiv

A Büffel armoured recovery vehicle (left) and Leopard 2A6 tanks (right) for Ukraine being loaded on a train in Bergen-Belsen, Germany. (Bundeswehr/Susanne Hähnel)

Ukraine has received German and Portuguese Leopard 2A6 and UK Challenger 2 main battle tanks (MBTs). The Portuguese Ministry of National Defence tweeted on 27 March that the three Leopard 2A6s donated by Lisbon were in Ukraine. The next day, the German Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced in a press release that 18 Leopard 2A6s, including ammunition and spare parts, and two Büffel armoured recovery vehicles, with their crews trained in Germany, had arrived in Ukraine on 28 March. Also on 28 March, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted that Challenger 2 tanks supplied by the UK had recently arrived in Ukraine and would soon begin combat missions.

The German MoD said 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) supplied by Germany were already in Ukraine. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius expected German armoured vehicles to be decisive on the front. He said that Germany, together with Sweden and Portugal, was providing a combat unit to Ukraine, with Berlin increasing the number of Leopard 2A6s it is donating from 14 to 18.