Russian Ukraine war live: EU nation buys dozens of German-made Leopard 1 tanks for Kyiv

Once assets for Belgium, dozens of second-hand Leopard 1 tanks are now being readied for Ukrainian forces fighting the Russian invasion, an arms trader who finalised the deal said.

The tanks, all of 50, have been sold to an undisclosed European government at a confidential price, said Freddy Versluys, CEO of defence company OIP Land Systems.

He said the tanks were bought from the Belgian government more than five years ago.

“The fact that they leave our company proves that we asked for a fair market price and someone was more than happy to take them,” Mr Versluys said in a post on LinkedIn, accompanied by a picture of tanks next to a bottle of Ukrainian vodka.

These tanks are now being transported to a factory for a substantial overhaul, he said, adding that some of the tanks would be used for spare parts while others would be repaired.

It could be four to six months before they are on the battlefield in Ukraine, the official said.

According to German newspaper Handelsblatt, arms maker Rheinmetall has acquired the tanks and would prepare most of them for export to Ukraine.

Of these, 50 tanks would be refurbished at Rheinmetall factories in Germany and 30 overhauled models would be made ready for export. It did not name any government as being behind the deal.

The coveted Leopards have been at the centre of a public spat since early 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.

Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed retaliation from Ukraine against Russia in the Black Sea in a bid to prevent the blockading of its waters that could hurt the import and export of grains and other trade.

“If Russia continues to dominate the Black Sea, outside its territory, blockading or firing at us again, launching missiles at our ports, Ukraine will do the same. This is a just defence of our opportunities, of any corridor,” Mr Zelensky said.

“We don’t have that many ships. But they should clearly understand that by the end of the war, they will have zero ships, zero,” the war-time leader said.

The Ukrainian president has also called on Russia to stop firing at Ukrainian ports which is hindering the trade in the region.

Russian students will be reading a coursebook that praises Valdimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on their national curriculum when they return to school next month – as the Kremlin seeks to control the historial narrative around its war provided to young people, my colleague William Mata reports.

The Kremlin is said to have ordered the rapid writing of the coursebooks, which will be aimed at 17-year-olds, with Ukraine’s Western allies seeking to make Moscow a global pariah over the invasion of its neighbour.

Education minister Sergei Kravtsov unveiled the book at a press conference on Monday and said the material aimed to “convey the aims [of the Ukraine offensive] to schoolchildren”.

Finnish and Norwegian regulators said on Tuesday they had banned Russian tech group Yandex and its Netherlands-based partner Ridetech International from transferring to Russia any personal data of customers of Yandex’s Yango ride-hailing app.

“The Finnish DPA (data protection authority) has become aware of a legislative reform that will enter into force in Russia at the beginning of September, under which the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation will have the right to receive data processed in taxi operations,” the regulator said in a statement.

The Yango ride-hailing service, which operates in 14 countries including Finland and Norway, is one of many services offered by Yandex, often dubbed “Russia’s Google”.

“There is an acute risk to privacy as Russian authorities could potentially monitor the movements of Norwegian citizens via Yango,” the Norwegian Data Protection Authority said in a separate statement.

Yango said it was studying the requests from Norwegian and Finnish regulators and intended to fully comply with new requirements. It said it processes data in strict compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and EU legislation.

In a rare interview the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, has spoken to Independent TV about her work rebuilding Ukraine in the middle of war, the pressures on her family and concerns for the future of her country.

From the presidential palace, she told The Independent’s Bel Trew about the need to reconstruct cities despite the fighting raging on, about building cutting-edge facilities to treat the country’s’ war-wounded and fighting stigma on trauma around the country.

Russian missiles struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk twice on Monday night, killing nine people, wounding scores and destroying apartments and a popular hotel, officials said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that 82 people were wounded in the attack, and rescue operations in Pokrovsk, about 45 miles southwest of Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk, had been completed.

“Everyone is provided with the necessary assistance. There are two children among the wounded,” Mr Zelensky said in his evening address.

Separately, Russian-installed Donetsk mayor Alexei Kulemzin accused Ukraine in a social media post of shelling the city of Donetsk, killing three people and wounding 10 on Tuesday.

In the Pokrovsk strikes, two missiles hit the centre of the city, which had a pre-war population of about 60,000, within 40 minutes of each other, witnesses said. Pictures posted online by officials showed that Druzhba (Friendship) Hotel suffered a direct hit, with several floors missing.

Some 50 Leopard 1 tanks which once belonged to Belgium have been bought by another European country which plans to provide them to Ukraine, the arms trader who did the deal has said.

The German-made tanks were at the centre of a public spat earlier this year after Belgium’s defence minister said the government had explored buying back tanks to send to Ukraine but had been quoted unreasonable prices – a predicament faced by several governments who had recently discarded arms as obsolete and now find them in high demand, and often owned by private companies.

Freddy Versluys, chief executive of defence company OIP Land Systems, who bought the tanks from the Belgian government more than five years ago, told Reuters he had now sold all 50 tanks to another European government, which he could not name due to a confidentiality clause.

“The fact that they leave our company proves that we asked for a fair market price and someone was more than happy to take them,” Mr Versluys said in a post on LinkedIn, accompanied by a picture of tanks next to a bottle of Ukrainian vodka.

He said the tanks were now being transported to a factory for a substantial overhaul. Some of the tanks would be used for spare parts while others would be repaired, he said. He estimated it could be four to six months before they are on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper reported that arms manufacturer Rheinmetall had acquired the tanks and would prepare most of them for export to Ukraine.

In our latest editorial, The Independent argues that the West must “intensify its efforts in the financial war to ensure Ukraine gains the edge in its fight for freedom and the international rule of law”. It states:

“It is heartening that the government has responded with such alacrity to calls from Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, to tighten the sanctions regime on Russia. As she pointed out so forcefully in her exclusive interview with The Independent, many states friendly to Russia are assisting the Kremlin in getting around international sanctions imposed on key individuals and on the wider Russian economy.

“Sanctions have had an impact on the Russian war machine, and the exit of many Western industrial groups has denuded its ability to manufacture weapons. However, as Ms Zelenska reminds us, it is tempting for states such as Turkey, Kazakhstan and Armenia to try to leverage some short-term tactical gains from covert assistance to Russia. Even more damaging to Ukraine has been the studied yet misguided neutrality of the likes of South Africa, Brazil and India, while Iran and North Korea, experts in the field of sanctions-busting, have given Vladimir Putin plenty of advice as well as hardware.

“China, though more circumspect about supplying single-purpose lethal material, hasn’t strayed too far from its “no limits partnership” with Moscow. Even Saudi Arabia, which recently hosted an international conference on the war with president Volodymyr Zelensky in attendance, has proved unhelpful in managing the post-invasion energy crisis.”