MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th January, 2023) The United Kingdom will provide Ukraine with 14 Challenger 2 tanks in the coming weeks, as part of its goal to accelerate military support to Kiev, the prime minister's office informs.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call on Saturday that London would send 12 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.
"Sending Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine is the start of a gear change in the UK's support. A squadron of 14 tanks will go into the country in the coming weeks after the Prime Minister told President Zelenskyy that the UK would provide additional support to aid Ukraine's land war. Around 30 AS90s, which are large, self-propelled guns, operated by five gunners, are expected to follow," the UK government said in a statement later on Saturday.
According to the release, more details on UK support for Kiev will be revealed on Monday.
"The UK will begin training the Ukrainian Armed Forces to use the tanks and guns in the coming days, as part of wider UK efforts which have seen thousands of Ukrainian troops trained in the UK over the last six months," the statement specified.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will travel to the United States and Canada in the coming days to discuss further support to Kiev, while UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace plans to travel to Estonia and Germany in the coming week to work with NATO allies to this end, the UK government said.
Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in London said that the decision to send modern samples of heavy armor to Kiev was designed "to persuade other, less belligerent Western countries to follow suit and provide their own tanks to the Ukrainian armed forces." The embassy warned that the Challenger 2 tanks will become legitimate targets for the Russian military.
In December, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, said that Western countries had supplied more than 350 tanks, 700 artillery systems, 100 multiple launch rocket systems, 30 helicopters, at least 5,000 drones, and 1,000 armored fighting vehicles to Ukraine since the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Total foreign financial assistance to Ukraine amounted to almost $100 billion, Gerasimov said.
