Ben Wallace wants Berlin to allow its Leopard 2 tanks to be re-exported from Nato countries to join British heavy armour
02:07Getting to the numbers required would need the help of Berlin. There are over 2,300 Leopard 2 tanks available or in storage in 13 Nato countries, according to the IISS, whereas there are only 227 Challenger 2 tanks in the British entire army.
The British minister also said the UK would aim to train 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers this year, with the help of a range of partner countries, now including Australia. Last year Britain trained 11,000 for Kyiv. The chief adviser to Ukraine’s president said his country was very grateful to the British people and to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for the latest military aid package. “The gifts list is really impressive. We’ll make good use of them defending our freedom,” he added.
A decision is now awaited from Germany before the Ramstein meeting on Friday. But there was turmoil in Berlin after the defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, announced herPhotograph: Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters “Months of media focus on me doesn’t allow for fact-based reporting and discussion about soldiers, the army and security policy in the interest of German citizens,” Lambrecht said in her resignation statement.
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