The Pentagon (US Department of Defense) is urging the Portuguese government to send to Ukraine a set of tracked armored vehicles of the US-made M113A model as part of NATO member assistance to counter the Russian invasion. Those who have served in the National Army for about 30 years at the Santa Margarita Army Camp – he revealed. Sunrise Source of the Ministry of Defense.
As part of an expansion following the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, US troops stationed in Europe in the 1990s acquired low-cost, questionable vehicles from the United States, at low cost, by the Portuguese military. The fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the eruption of the Soviet Union (1991) – the result of the independence of the Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, now members of NATO and the European Union) and Ukraine. Federation Russian.
The Pentagon took 104 M113A2 from the Netherlands, slightly higher than its index value, instead of bringing them back to the United States, as it was more favorable for the Pentagon to leave these vehicles, which were already on the verge of technical failure. 50 M113A1s in Germany (with the condition that they cannot be resold without the prior permission of North Americans).
The Lisbon government has been delaying its response to Washington’s request following a meeting at the US military base in Rammstein, Germany, this week between US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and military officials from about 40 countries at the Pentagon’s invitation. , With the intention of discussing assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces (in which Portuguese Defense Minister Helena Carreras test positive for Govt-19 and participated remotely via video).
Portugal has already supplied Ukraine with substantial quantities of ammunition (mortars) and mortars a few weeks ago, passing through Poland, but last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Jordan called on the Portuguese military not to carry heavy offensive supplies as requested by highly monitored armored vehicles (not tanks). In the Republican legislature, the country must respond to requests for military equipment made by video. .
At the Rammstein meeting, the Americans supported the study that the Russian / Ukrainian conflict threatens to drag on for months or even years, so countries that want to help Kiev militarily against the occupation ordered by Vladimir Putin should be prepared to continue this assistance. For a long time.
It has not yet been determined how many surveillance armored vehicles will be released from the more than 150 armored vehicles it has if the Portuguese government complies with the Pentagon’s request.
Portuguese authorities have ordered GNR to make available to Ukraine four of its Iveco M 40.12 WM / P armored vehicles, original Italian production, which the security forces adapted and upgraded when they intervened as part of police stabilization in Iraq. American and British forces invaded and occupied the country in 2003.
On that occasion, President Jorge Zamboo opposed the government of Jose Manuel Duro Barroso, who had sent components of the Portuguese army to join the invading forces in Iraq, and the solution found was to send components of the GNR, for which Iveco had been purchased. They have been idle in Portugal since the end of the intervention and have already been deported to Ukraine in the meantime. However, these are patrol and auxiliary vehicles in low-intensity combat situations that do not meet its current requirements in the context of an invasion faced by the Ukrainian military.
The Portuguese embassy is set to reopen
Sunrise, meanwhile, learned from a military source that the Portuguese embassy in Kiev (along with other diplomatic missions in the Ukrainian capital) would reopen soon after the initial phase of the Russian invasion and the failed attempt to capture the city. Finally retreat (now focusing on the east of the country).
The security of the Portuguese embassy will be the responsibility of a section of the GOE (Special Task Force, Counter Terrorism Division of the PSP), but the military has not yet named the officer in charge of it.
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