British Challenger tanks promised by London to Kyiv will be operational “next month” in Ukraine, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told a news conference.
“Ukrainian teams that arrived last week (to train in the UK, editor’s note) will use Challenger 2 tanks to defend Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty next month,” Sunak said alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in southwest England. , confirming the schedule given in January by the government, which had mentioned deliveries at the end of March.
Tank shipments announced in January
The UK was the first country to announce, on January 14, that it would provide Kyiv with heavy tanks, 14 Challenger 2s. Germany also agreed in January, after long resisting, to deliver heavy tanks to Ukraine, too. such as the United States and other European countries. France has not announced Leclerc tank deliveries at this time, but Emmanuel Macron has not ruled out this option.
Just days before the first anniversary of the invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, the Ukrainian leader came to plead his case in the UK, before traveling to Paris on Wednesday night for a dinner at work with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz then Brussels on Thursday for a European Union summit.
The timing is crucial for Ukraine, which has been worried about the Russian army’s successes in Donbass since January and fears a major offensive in the coming weeks.
Fighter jets for Ukraine?
In front of British parliamentarians, Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday called for “fighter planes for Ukraine, wings for freedom.” Seeming to open the door, the head of the British Conservative government promised Volodymyr Zelensky to train fighter pilots “according to NATO standards” and this “to ensure that Ukraine can defend its airspace in the future.”
He then made it known, through his spokesman, that he had asked the army to study possible aircraft deliveries and warned that it could only be “a long-term solution.”
“In terms of providing military aid to Ukraine, nothing is ruled out,” the British leader told reporters alongside Zelensky, acknowledging that the aircraft deliveries were “of course part of the conversation” but stressing that the necessary training it could take up to three years. .
Source: BFM TV
