The German defense concern Rheinmetall, in addition to the planned delivery of 88 Leopard 1A5 tanks, intends to sell Ukraine 20 more modern Leopard 2 tanks, which are in service with the Bundeswehr, the Handelsblatt newspaper writes, Report informs via TASS.
According to Handelsblatt, in the near future, Rheinmetall wants to send a corresponding application to the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection of Germany. It covers 110 Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 tanks. According to the newspaper, the concern refused to comment on the publication.
On Monday, Die Welt reported that Rheinmetall submitted a request to the ministry for permission to sell 88 Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine late last week. This application was forwarded to the Federal Security Council, which includes the German Chancellor and a number of ministers.
Earlier, Rheinmetall sent a request to the German authorities to sell 100 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine, and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) sent an application to export 100 PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery mounts to Ukraine. The cost of Leopard 1A5 tanks is about 115 million euros. Together with the €150 million Marder IFV and the €1.8 billion self-propelled artillery mounts, the total value of the deal could be around €2 billion.