Monitoring Desk
LONDON: The United Kingdom (UK) is considering supplying Ukraine with British tanks for the first time to fight Russia’s invading forces.
Discussions have been taking place for the last few weeks regarding delivering a number of the British Army’s Challenger 2 main battle tank to the Ukrainian armed forces, Sky News reported while quoting a Western source with knowledge of the conversations.
Such a move would mark a significant step up in Western support for Ukraine and could help influence other NATO allies, particularly Germany, to follow suit.
“UK would encourage other countries to give tanks to Ukraine,” Sky News reported while citing sources.
UK to encourage other countries to support Ukraine
A final decision is yet to be made by UK PM Rishi Sunak’s government; however, if the UK did sign off on such a delivery, it would become the first country to respond to pleas from Kyiv to equip its military with powerful Western tanks.
A US-led grouping of some 50 countries – including the UK – delivering military support to Kyiv is due to hold its next meeting on January 20, 2023. Any announcements about new assistance, such as tanks, could be made to correspond with the Contact Group gathering.
Britain might offer about 10 Challenger 2 tanks, enough to equip a squadron, the news channel reported.
The news channel reported that this in itself would not be a game changer. However, it would still be hugely crucial because the action would breach a blockade that has so far prevented allied nations from offering up Western tanks to Ukraine for fear of being seen as extremely escalatory by Russia.
That could, in turn, prompt other allied nations to do the same, the news channel reported.
“It will be a good precedent to show to others – particularly to Germany, with their Leopards… and Abrams from the United States (US),” Sky News reported while citing a Ukrainian source.
