Ukraine receives first 3 Gepard air defense systems from Germany
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that Ukraine received from Germany self-propelled anti-aircraft systems Gepard and several thousand pieces of ammunition for them. There will be only three of them in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but in total Berlin promised to deliver 15 self-propelled systems, said Reznikov.
"Today, the first three Gepards have officially arrived. We have also received several thousands of cartridges for these anti-aircraft systems. We expect 15 Gepard systems in total. Three have already arrived in Ukraine today, and they are already in service at of the Armed Forces," Reznikov said.
According to the Minister, the Defence Ministry is also negotiating the supply of modern tanks to Ukraine such as Leopard and Abrams.
"Most likely we will start with one of the friendly countries, which has Leopard tanks and is ready to deliver them to us. First, we are planning for a few dozen tanks. We will train our tank crews to use them, most likely in the Baltic countries. We are now negotiating not only about Leopard, but also trying to convince our partners that it could be other tanks, for example, Abrams," Reznikov added.
Gepard is a German anti-aircraft self-propelled gun designed to provide fire cover for ground forces, destroy air targets at distances from 100 m to 4 km and at altitudes up to 3 km, flying at speeds up to 350-400 m / s, as well as ground targets at a range of up to 4500 meters.
Prior to this, Germany handed over to Ukraine howitzers Panzerhaubitze 200 which are already used at the front. Germany also promised to provide an advanced air defense system IRIS-T, this will happen in the autumn.