Media: Sunak agreed to send Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will inform the Ukrainian authorities of his intention to send a tank squadron to Kyiv, we are talking about the supply of four Challenger 2 tanks, reported The Independent and The Sun citing Downing Street sources.

According to publications, the British prime minister will inform Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the upcoming delivery today, January 14.

According to British media, Sunak agreed to the supply of tanks to help Ukraine regain its lost territories. According to The Sun, weapons are planned to be sent to Kyiv before the spring offensive.

Four British Army Challenger 2 main battle tanks will be sent “immediately” to Eastern Europe, with London to deliver eight more tanks soon. “The Prime Minister has made it clear that the UK must fulfill its obligations to Ukraine, and this includes ensuring that it has the necessary equipment for self-defense and rebalancing the battlefield,” the source told The Independent.

This move, as noted, will make the UK the first Western country to decide to supply Ukraine with battle tanks. The Prime Minister and British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace intend to supply the tanks after Zelensky’s respective requests, The Sun adds. Earlier in Kyiv, they announced the need for the West to send 300 tanks to return their territories.

On January 6, the Pentagon announced the allocation of a new and currently the largest package of military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $ 3.075 billion. For the first time, 50 M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) are planned to be transferred to Ukraine. The total amount of officially allocated US military assistance to Kyiv since the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 is now more than $24.9 billion.

In addition, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced about readiness to transfer a company of Leopard tanks from the Polish army to Ukraine “as part of the creation of an international coalition.” Duda proposes to create a group of countries – operators of German tanks Leopard 2, each of which will have to provide Ukraine with a relatively small number of such vehicles, which, as expected, will eventually allow up to 100 tanks to be assembled. Poland, thus, was the first country to officially declare its intention to transfer the main Western-made tanks to Ukraine.

The Russian authorities have repeatedly criticized the supply of Western weapons to Kyiv. In particular, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, has repeatedly pointed out that pumping Ukraine with weapons brings NATO closer to the dangerous line of a direct military clash with Russia. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev pointed outthat the Leopard tanks that Poland is going to transfer to Kyiv, and other Western weapons will not save Ukraine.