Amid a new wave of Russian attacks on key infrastructure in Ukraine, Britain has announced it will deliver 14 heavy battle tanks to Kyiv.
The deployment of the Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems should help the Ukrainian army “push back Russian troops,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said yesterday.
Sunak announced the delivery of the tanks in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Great Britain is thus the first country to deliver heavy main battle tanks to Ukraine. Germany, for example, refuses.
Russia warns
Zelenskyj welcomed the British decision. Not only will it “strengthen Ukraine on the battlefield,” but it will also “send the right signal to other partners,” he wrote on Twitter. After the announcement from London, Moscow warned that such a step would only “intensify” the conflict.
The tanks would arrive in Ukraine in the coming weeks, the British Prime Minister’s office at 10 Downing Street said. Britain will begin training Ukrainian soldiers on the tanks and artillery systems in the coming days.
