Rotterdam, 27 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The Ukrainian armed forces have received 18 modern Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks from Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed at a press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Rotterdam on Monday.

"We have delivered as announced," Scholz said.

As with other weapons systems, government agencies had not publicly disclosed anything about the transport of the tanks for security reasons.

On January 25, after a lengthy domestic political struggle, the German government had issued the goal of "quickly assembling two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine." These are usually equipped with 31 tanks each in Ukraine.

The main countries involved in delivering such tanks to Ukraine are Poland, as well as Norway, Canada and Spain.

Poland delivered the first four western battle tanks of the older type Leopard 2A4 to Ukraine in February.