Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defence, has named the countries that have begun preparations to provide Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine or have made a commitment to do so.

"A group of countries, including Germany, Poland, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, are working together to provide Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine," Austin said before the meeting of Ukraine's Defence Contact Group.

He also said that the United States, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands are jointly providing more than 90 T-72 tanks, in addition to Poland's decision to provide its T-72s. And the UK is transferring a company of Challenger main battle tanks, and "together with several countries, it is looking for sources to supply Ukraine with additional ammunition".

Earlier it became known that four Leopard 2A4 battle tanks, which Canada promised to give to Ukraine, are already in Poland, and Ukrainian soldiers are already training on them.

On 25 January, the German government officially announced its decision to transfer the Leopard 2 main battle tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and allow re-export to other countries that also want to do so.