The head of the Portuguese government, Antonio Costa, emphasized that sending tanks to Ukraine will not threaten the army of Portugal itself in terms of equipment.

He writes about it 

Diario de Noticias.

"We are currently working on being able to give up part of our tanks. I know how many tanks will be [sent to Ukraine], but it will be announced at the appropriate time," Koshta said.

According to him, Portugal is currently working with Germany to "carry out a logistics operation for the supply of spare parts to complete the recovery of some [combat] vehicles that were not in service."

"The operation, the purpose of which is to provide several tanks to Ukraine, involves the preservation of the military potential of Portugal itself. It is obvious that Portugal also has obligations within the framework of NATO, which we cannot fail to fulfill in terms of the availability of equipment for interventions in case of need," he noted. 

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Responding to a question about the most likely time when Leopard 2 tanks can be sent to Ukraine, Koshta noted that "work is ongoing in Europe to get all these means available by the end of March."

The Prime Minister of Portugal added that some of the tanks are not operational, so the country must work simultaneously with the manufacturers to ensure the necessary supply chain to restore such tanks and to be able to discard the serviceable tanks.

It will be recalled that the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, said that "a lot" of tanks from foreign partners, including German Leopard, British Challenger and American Abrams tanks, will soon arrive in Ukraine.

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