Swiss Leopard 2 Tanks Will Not Be Sent to Ukraine If Sold to Germany

GENEVA (Sputnik) - Switzerland's parliamentary security commission of the Council of States (CPS-E) has supported the government's proposal to sell 25 Leopard-2 tanks to Germany, provided for they will not be supplied to Ukraine in the future, the CPS-E told Sputnik on Friday.

"We are talking about 25 Leopard 87 tanks, which are a version of the Leopard 2. These tanks have nothing to do with the Leopard-1 tanks bought by RUAG and stored in Italy. Germany promised that if purchased, these tanks would not be sent to Ukraine later," the commission said.

Earlier in the day, the CPS-E said that the majority of the commission members supported the proposal of the Federal Council to decommission 25 of the 96 Leopard 87 tanks in service with the Swiss army in order to allow them to be sold to the manufacturer.

In January, Berlin said it planned to send its Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks to Ukraine, also agreeing to provide re-export licenses for other countries willing to supply these German-made armored vehicles.

Since then, Warsaw, Ottawa, Lisbon, and Oslo have also said they could deliver various modernizations of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, with up to 14 tanks coming from Poland, four such vehicles from Canada, three Leopard 2s from Portugal, and eight from Norway.

The delivery of the tanks came as Western countries ramped up their military aid to Kiev shortly after Russia began its special military operation in Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that NATO countries “play with fire" by supplying weapons to Kiev, and that any convoy of arms for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russian forces.