Poland Plans to Send Ukraine Another 60 Tanks in Addition to Leopard 2
Poland is planning to send another 60 modernised Soviet-made tanks, including PT-91 Twardy, to Ukraine, apart from a company [14 units – ed.] of Leopard 2 tanks.
While commenting on the achieved agreement of Western allies on supplying Ukraine with modern tanks, Morawiecki has highlighted Poland’s role in this, as it has helped convince the rest and set an example itself.
"Poland sent 250 tanks as the first country half a year ago or even more than that. Right now, we are ready to send 60 of our modernised tanks, 30 of them PT-91. And on top of those tanks, 14 tanks, Leopard 2 tanks, from our possession," said Mateusz Morawiecki, Prime Minister of Poland, in an interview with the Canadian outlet CTV News
He has pointed out that Russia might have thousands of tanks - "several thousands, or some say even more than 15,000, of the tanks in their stores", and if the allies truly want to help Ukraine survive, their support should be significant.
The Polish PM has said that the tanks that were promised and sent by Poland became a strong argument in convincing other allies to agree and supply Western-type tanks to Ukraine. Warsaw has also stressed that in case Putin succeeds, this war in Ukraine will be just the beginning of his attempts to restore the empire.
Mateusz Morawiecki has added that Poland continues working on encouraging more countries to send tanks to Ukraine.
"And I think if Europe wants to have stable and long-term growth, stability and development in a peaceful way, we have to fend off all those barbaric attacks by the Russians…Russia's weapon is fear. Our weapon should be and has to be solidarity. Putin behaves like an actor from an old geopolitical theatre. He's like Nero, ready to set Rome on fire just to carry out his objectives. And his main, major objective is to reestablish the Russian Empire. He took the worst from the demons of the 20th century, like nationalism, colonialism, and all sorts of features from (the) totalitarian toolkit, and we have to be very strong in our reply, because his success means the defeat of not only Ukraine, (but) the defeat of the free world," Morawiecki said.
PT-91 Twardy is a Polish modification of Soviet-made modernised T-72 tank.
It was reported that Ukraine had received the first TP-91 tanks in July 2022; the number of tanks was not mentioned then.