It could be argued that old tanks are better than no tanks, but the Kremlin has already attempted to bolster its forces following the losses of potentially thousands of tanks in the fighting by sending older T-62s dating from the Cold War – and those haven’t exactly fared all that well on the front lines.Īs Kyiv needs as many tanks as possible, the Leopard 1s could still fill a role. Given that Kyiv’s forces have already lost a number of Leopard 2 MBTs in its recent offensive, the decision to send any additional Leopard 1s – even the improved Leopard 1A5 – remains a questionable decision. In that particular case, Berlin has promised not to send those tanks to Ukraine – and instead will employ them as Germany has sought to increase its military. That deal won the support of Bern and is expected to go through next year. However, the rejection is unconnected to a separate deal that will see 25 Leopard 2 MBTs in service with the Swiss Army transferred to the Germany-based Rheinmetall AG for refurbishment. In particular, such a sale would be contrary to the War Material Act and would entail an adjustment of the neutrality policy.” “The Federal Council has come to the conclusion that the sale of the 96 tanks is not possible on the basis of current law. “Priority was thus given to aspects of Switzerland’s neutrality policy and its reliability as a constitutional state,” the Swiss government said via a statement. The arms maker had submitted an application with Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to transfer the used and non-operational MBTS – currently in storage in Italy – to Germany so that they could be refurbished and then subsequently re-exported to Ukraine. On Wednesday, Switzerland’s Federal Council rejected an application by the state-owned arms manufacturer Ruag AG to sell 96 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks (MBTs) for use in Ukraine, arguing that it contradicts current law.
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