Mariusz Błaszczak made the declaration at a news conference in Warsaw on Tuesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He was speaking to reporters before an informal two-day meeting of European Union defence ministers in Stockholm, Sweden.
‘Poland will deliver 10 Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine this week’
Błaszczak, who is also a deputy prime minister, told reporters: “Poland will deliver 10 Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine this week.”
He declared that Poland was also “ready to establish a maintenance hub for the tanks being transferred to Ukraine" at its Bumar-Łabędy factory in the southern city of Gliwice.
Polish arms makers 'ready to produce spare parts' for Leopard tanks
Błaszczak told the news conference that there was "a shortage of spare parts” and that he would discuss the issue during talks with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius later on Wednesday.
Błaszczak said: “I expect Minister Pistorius to persuade the German arms industry to supply spare parts" for German-made Leopard tanks.
He added: “It’s a challenge facing Germany, Poland, Canada, essentially all the countries, but naturally only Germany and its defence industry can solve this problem.”
Błaszczak also said that Polish arms makers were "ready to produce spare parts," but "only Germany’s Rheinmetall, the manufacturer of Leopard tanks, has all the necessary technical documentation.”
He declared that "the Poland-led tanks-for-Ukraine coalition” would supply Kyiv with a battalion of tanks, including 14 Leopard 2A4 tanks from Poland, eight each from Norway and Canada, and six from Spain, as well as tank-support vehicles from Finland.
Tanks for Ukraine
On February 24, Poland’s Prime Minister marked the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine by announcing in Kyiv that Poland had supplied the first four Leopard 2A4 tanks to the Ukrainian army.
On January 11, Polish President Andrzej Duda declared during a visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv that Poland had decided to transfer a company of Leopard 2 tanks, as part of an international coalition, to help Ukraine fight Russia.
On January 25, the German government said it would supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks and allow partner countries, including Poland, to re-export their own Leopard 2s to Kyiv, according to news reports at the time.
That same day, US President Joe Biden said his country would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
The White House said the tanks would be bought specially for Ukraine and the delivery would take “months,” but training for Ukrainian troops would begin soon.
Meanwhile, Britain confirmed on January 11 that it planned to send its Challenger tanks to Ukraine, later specifying that it would provide 14 machines, to be delivered to the front “before the summer,” the PAP news agency reported.
Tuesday is day 377 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, tvp.info