A Belgian man who bought 50 Leopard I tanks in poor condition at rock-bottom prices is asking as much as a million euros per vehicle as Belgium and other countries look to supply Ukraine.
Belgian businessman Freddy Versluys, who serves as CEO of defence company OIP Land Systems, owns the 50 tanks — more armour than the entire Belgian army currently fields.
The tanks, which are currently stored in a large hangar just over 60 miles from Brussels, were bought years ago by the 61-year-old for around 40,000 euros a piece, though only 33 of the 50 were said to be operational, El Mundo reports.
According to Versluys, the arguably short-sighted Belgian government simply wanted to get rid of the tanks, so he bought them gambling that they could be needed for parts in the future.
Belgian Minister of Defence Ludivine Dedonder has now expressed interest in the vehicles, as Western countries led by the United Kingdom have pledged to help Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia by supplying heavy armour — but has complained Versluys wants as much as a million euros per repaired tank and that the figure is unreasonable.
OIP Land Systems, however, says the repair and upgrade costs could be in the hundreds of thousands of euros, stating that removing asbestos from the tanks alone could cost as much as 75,000 euros.
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The company has said that it is open to offers on the tanks and inquiries on the state of the vehicles, including from the government of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky directly.
Last week, the German, Danish and Dutch defence ministries promised they would send as many as a hundred tanks to Ukraine, all of which will be Leopard 1 A5 tanks. Germany has also promised 14 of its more advanced Leopard IIs.
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted to the Western tank pledges by branding the scheme hopeless, saying: “Simply because of technological aspects, this is a rather disastrous plan. The main thing is, this is a completely obvious overestimation of the potential [the supply of tanks] would add to the armed forces of Ukraine. It is yet another fallacy, a rather profound one.”
“These tanks will burn down just like all the other ones. … Except they cost a lot, and this will fall on the shoulders of European taxpayers,” Peskov added.
President Zelensky has urged Western leaders to deliver more military supplies as fierce fighting continues in his country, particularly in the area of the eastern city of Bakhmut, where Russia continues to make slow and steady gains, recently capturing the nearby town of Soledar.
