SWIETOSZOW, Poland — One after the other, Leopard tanks crewed by Ukrainian troops and their Polish instructors zipped up a muddy subject, bouncing over deep ruts and cresting a low grime berm. They stopped, fired a smoke grenade, then raced again in reverse to their beginning factors.

The demonstration on Monday, for President Andrzej Duda of Poland and his protection minister, was the primary since Ukrainian troops started coaching on the Leopard 2A4 tanks after being promised them by Western allies practically three weeks in the past. With a large Russian operation already mounting in Ukraine’s east and south, officers stated that they had compressed the tutelage of working and sustaining the conflict machines into a few months — a course of that normally takes as much as a 12 months.

Ukraine’s leaders and their NATO backers hope the tanks might be a vital a part of a marketing campaign to push Russian forces out of small cities and cities the place the combating has been centered in latest weeks. The Leopards, which transfer as swiftly backward as they do ahead, are significantly helpful for city fight.

Ukrainian Maj. Vadym Khodak, 57, stated he and his fellow troopers had been pulled off the entrance strains in Donetsk and Luhansk, the provinces that make up the closely contested Donbas area in japanese Ukraine, and given three days to report back to this drab Polish base close to the German border.

“These tanks might be a fantastic help for our military,” stated Main Khodak, who had been lengthy retired from Ukraine’s military when Russia invaded a 12 months in the past however instantly volunteered to rejoin. “Utilizing them in fight circumstances may have a fantastic impact.”

He stated he and the opposite Ukrainian troops already had expertise on tanks, however not on tools as superior because the Leopards. Principally, they’ve used the Soviet-era equipment that has made up Kyiv’s navy fleet and are being destroyed within the ongoing fight.

“For the time being, we’re very wanting armored automobiles and I hope that after we get to the entrance line with this tools, it should save a number of lives of our troopers and produce us nearer to victory,” Main Khodak stated.

Monday’s demonstration in Poland got here on the identical day that one other group of Ukrainian troops started their coaching on Leopard 2 tanks in Germany. Nonetheless one other group can also be being educated on British-made Challenger 2 tanks in the UK.

However Monday’s transient public occasion was the primary to showcase the method in what has more and more develop into a race inside NATO to exhibit help for Ukraine — and, in doing so, strain extra cautious states into stepping up.

“These trendy weapons, we hope, will assist them defeat the enemy way more effectively than has been the case up to now,” Mr. Duda stated.

Poland had lengthy leaned on different allies to ship tanks to Ukraine, finally sporting down resistance from america and Germany, the place leaders fearful about the potential of additional escalating the battle. Though Britain was the primary to decide to sending 14 of its Challenger 2s, Poland and a half-dozen different international locations had by then been pushing Berlin to permit them to re-export their very own German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

That call got here in late January, solely after the Biden administration additionally agreed to ship 31 American-made tanks to match Germany’s pledge of sending 14 Leopards 2 of its stockpile. The Germans later agreed to additionally ship as many as 88 of their older Leopard 1 tanks.

Mr. Duda stated the donations had been vital “in order that Ukraine can counter the Russian onslaught with trendy tanks in the usual adopted by the North Atlantic Alliance — far more trendy than what it had up to now.”