“We gave them everything: excellent equipment and good knowledge,” said Mats Ludwig, operations commander at the Swedish Land Forces Headquarters.
According to the statement, the tanks are already in Ukraine, and Swedish soldiers are monitoring the activities of their Ukrainian colleagues using social media, as much as possible, the Swedish army press service wrote.
The third generation Stridsvagn 122 tank was built under license from the German Leopard 2A5 tank, but its design was modified in several ways. The Stridsvagn 122 was put into service in 1996, and last year Sweden already had 120 of these tanks, and Stockholm decided to hand over a tenth of them to the Ukrainian army.
Denmark previously announced that it would purchase 45 additional tanks for Ukraine, including 15 modern T-72 tanks, along with other countries. In addition, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced on September 19 that the United States will deliver M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in the near future.
We recently reported that the Swedish government is considering equipping the Ukrainian Armed Forces with JAS 39 Gripen fighter-bombers.
The negotiations are still at a relatively early stage, and the Swedish government is still assessing the extent to which the arms transfer will affect the country’s defense capabilities, and how quickly the existing aircraft in the Swedish Air Force will be replaced.
Cover image source: Getty Images
