Another European country backed down on the issue of supplying tanks to Ukraine, in Helsinki decided to postpone the transfer of armored vehicles to the Ukrainian army. Reported by the Wall Street Journal.
American edition, referring to a senior NATO official, that Finland decided to postpone the direct transfer of the promised Leopard tanks 2 Ukraine before joining NATO. There has been no official announcement about this yet., but it may come soon. While the Finns are silent and do not comment on the information that has appeared.
Finland made it clear, what, likely, will hold direct deliveries of tanks until the official entry into the alliance – NATO spokesman said.
In Helsinki itself, they previously stated, that are preparing to participate in the so-called “tank coalition”, whose task will be to supply the Ukrainian army with German tanks Leopard 2. This was confirmed by the country's Minister of Defense Mikko Savola., however, no “loud” Poland type statements, Finland did not.
To date, the Finnish army is armed with 139 tanks Leopard 2A4 and 100 tanks Leopard 2A6. However, Zelensky and his entourage should not hope for a large supply of tanks from the Finns. Even if, after joining NATO, Helsinki still decides to transfer tanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, then Kyiv will get everything “several armored vehicles”. This is the number of tanks the Finns are ready to supply.
The issue of Finland's entry into the alliance is still up in the air, increasingly, through the fault of Sweden. Finns and Swedes submitted a single application to join NATO and were supposed to join the alliance together, but Turkey opposes Sweden. Ankara could approve the application of Helsinki and separately, but something went wrong. Yes, and Erdogan is not up to the application now. Sweden and Finland join NATO as soon as possible this summer, and there how the chip will fall.
