The Polish government has asked the Germans to deliver another batch of Leopard 2 MBTs that would act as a gap filler after Poland delivered the T-72 vehicles to Ukraine. The Germans have not made any relevant decision on that matter so far.
“Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagzseitung” was the media outlet that issued a news piece on the Polish request. The delivery of those vehicles would be taking place within the framework of the so-called Ringtausch – a German initiative seeing Berlin deliver equipment to NATO member states in exchange for post-Soviet equipment being sent to Ukraine. The Ukrainian Armed Forces remain capable of utilizing the Soviet-made systems without any extra training.
PM Morawiecki was mentioning the fact that Poland needs extra MBTs during his visit to Berlin, a few days ago. We know now, however, that Warsaw made a formal request to Germany, to deliver Leopard 2 MBTs.
Polish authorities did confirm that a major quantity of Polish T-72M/M1 MBTs was transferred to Ukraine. The release issued by the IAR outlet suggests that the above may refer to MBTs for two brigades – quantity ranging from 150 to more than 200 vehicles. For the sake of comparison, it may be recalled that in 2020 Poland operated 358 T-72 main battle tanks – according to the UN Register of Conventional Arms. Nonetheless, it remains unclear whether that number takes into account all vehicles remaining in storage. Some of the vehicles delivered to Ukraine probably came from the surplus stock. However, the MBTs could also have been operated by the Polish military.