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Search resuls for: "Versluys"


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An arms dealer said he sold 49 Leopard 1 tanks to an unnamed EU country to send to Ukraine. German newspaper Handelsblatt, meanwhile, reported that the Leopard 1 tanks were bought by German arms maker Rheinmetall for use in Ukraine, and that the deal involved 50 tanks. Ukraine began receiving deliveries of Leopard tanks from its allies in February 2023, after months of asking for advanced armored vehicles. Older tanks, once discarded as obsolete, are now in high demand, The Guardian reported, given battlefield needs. Experts say that the West's hesitancy to send tanks to Ukraine gave Russia the time to build up its defenses.
Persons: Freddy Versluys, Versluys, Handelsblatt, Volodymyr Zelenskyy Organizations: Handelsblatt, Rheinmetall, Service, OIP, Systems, Guardian, Leopard, Reuters, Ukraine, Russian, Kiel Institute Locations: Ukraine, Wall, Silicon, Belgium, Germany, Russia
The German-made Leopards were at the centre of a public spat earlier this year after Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder said the government had explored buying back tanks to send to Ukraine but had been quoted unreasonable prices. Freddy Versluys, CEO of defence company OIP Land Systems, bought the tanks from the Belgian government more than five years ago. The German Defence Ministry had no immediate comment. Several of Kyiv's Western allies agreed earlier this year to send modern Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and also to send older Leopard 1 models. A spokesperson for the Belgian defence ministry declined to comment on the sale of the tanks.
Persons: Freddy Versluys, Read, Ludivine Dedonder, Germany's, Versluys, Krauss, Andrew Gray, Christoph Steitz, Sabine Siebold, Jonathan Oatis, Alex Richardson Organizations: OIP, Systems, Belgian, Leopards, Belgian Defence, Reuters, Rheinmetall, LinkedIn, NATO, German Defence Ministry, Maffei, Thomson Locations: Belgian, Ukraine, Wallonia, Germany, Tournais, Belgium, BRUSSELS, Vilnius
REUTERS/Yves HermanTOURNAI, Belgium, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Freddy Versluys does not like to be called an arms dealer. Tanks sold for 10-15,000 euros each are being offered for sale at 500,000 euros, despite not being operational, she has said. That would mean a unit price of 40,000 euros for 50 tanks, or some 60,600 euros for 33. The Leopard 1 is the predecessor of the Leopard 2 tanks that Germany, Poland, Finland and other countries agreed last month to send to Ukraine. He worked as an engineer in the Belgian military before going into business.
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