Austria not to train Ukrainian military on Leopard 2 tanks - media

This is reported by Ukrinform citing Austrian Radio Ö1.

"The Minister of Defense (with the Austrian People's Party) Klaudia Tanner categorically rejects the possibility of training the Ukrainian military," said the Morgenjournal radio show host with reference to the statement by the top defense official.

According to Tanner, this is a sovereign decision of each state "to support Ukraine within the framework of its national laws." At the same time, the minister added that "Austria is neutral militarily, but not politically, and even more so, not morally."

At the same time, as per international law expert Ralph Janik, Austria's neutrality does not stand in the way of training Ukrainian tankers, as this is a decision of the EU, of which the country is a member. Moreover, foreign soldiers from NATO member states - Hungary and the Czech Republic - are currently being trained on Austria’s Leopard 2 tanks.

According to the expert, the decision not to train the Ukrainian military in Austria was made "for political reasons." "We prefer to live with this residual neutrality instead of testing the limits that the law sees not so narrowly," Janik says, pointing to the delicate domestic political debate on neutrality.

Austria’s armed forces ("Bundesger") have a single tank battalion armed with 48 Leopard-2 main battle tanks.

As reported by Ukrinform, next week Germany will begin training Ukrainian servicemen on the use and maintenance of the Leopard 2 main battle tanks.

Photo: R1234 Ralph Zwilling/Tank-Masters.de/picture alliance