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regular-article-logo Thursday, 25 April 2024

Britain to supply tanks to Ukraine

Sunak made pledge to provide Challenger 2 tanks and other artillery systems after speaking to Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday

AP/PTI London Published 15.01.23, 12:15 AM
Ukrainians dance to music as they take shelter inside a Metro station during Russian missile attacks in Kyiv on Saturday

Ukrainians dance to music as they take shelter inside a Metro station during Russian missile attacks in Kyiv on Saturday Reuters

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday promised to provide tanks and artillery systems to Ukraine, amid renewed missile attacks by Moscow targeting multiple Ukrainian cities for the first time in nearly two weeks.

Ten people were wounded, including two children, in the southeastern city of Dnipro, where a Russian missile strike destroyed a section of a residential building, officials said.

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Infrastructure facilities were also hit in the western Lviv region and northeastern Kharkiv.

Kyiv, the capital, was also targeted.

Sunak made the pledge to provide Challenger 2 tanks and other artillery systems after speaking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, the British leader’s Downing Street office said in a statement. It didn’t say when the tanks would be delivered or how many.

British media have reported that four British Army Challenger 2 main battle tanks will be sent to Eastern Europe immediately, with eight more to follow shortly after, without citing sources.

Zelensky tweeted his thanks to Sunak on Saturday “for the decisions that will not only strengthen us on the battlefield but also send the right signal to other partners”.

Ukraine has for months sought to be supplied with heavier tanks, including the US. Abrams and the German Leopard 2 tanks, but western leaders have been treading carefully. The Czech Republic and Poland have provided Soviet-era T-72 tanks to Ukrainian forces.

Poland has also expressed readiness to provide a company of Leopard tanks, but President Andrzej Duda stressed during his recent visit to the Ukrainian city of Lviv that the move would be possible only as an element in a larger international coalition of tank aid to Kyiv. Earlier this month, France said it would send AMX-10 RC armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine, designated “light tanks” in French.

The US and Germany announced that they would send Bradley fighting vehicles and Marder armoured carriers, respectively.

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