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Western deliveries of NATO-standard Leopard tanks are not fit for purpose in Ukraine, Russian state media has reported, as the military vehicles head towards the battlefield.
One report, cited in the Russian Pravda outlet, said the donated tanks had not undergone thorough inspections. It added that many of the tanks had been “kept unused at warehouses for years” or been hastily repaired before delivery to Ukraine.
Kyiv made repeated calls for Western-made main battle tanks, such as the German-made Leopards, ahead of Ukraine’s backers consenting to the deliveries in January 2023.
For Ukrainian military stocks, filled with Soviet-era tanks, these NATO-standard weapons represented a significant upgrade in capabilities.
Several countries, including Canada, Poland and Portugal, have donated Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
However, some of the promised tanks came from storage, with questions arising about how battle-ready some of the committed vehicles would be. Ahead of Berlin committing Leopard tanks to Ukraine, the head of German military manufacturer Rheinmetall told German newspaper Bild that stocks of Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 tanks “must be completely dismantled and rebuilt.”
The Russian report did not specify which type of Leopard tank has allegedly fallen short of Kyiv’s requirements.
The Pravda report cited an anonymous Telegram channel, known as “Resident,” which claims to publish insider knowledge from both Ukrainian and Russian sources.
An unnamed source told the account’s administrators that Ukraine’s top soldier, Valery Zaluzhny, informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that “several Leopard tanks failed on their first run-in, and the supplied artillery shells are of poor quality.”