LONDON – UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is discussing with Western allies how to send “game-changing” tanks to Ukraine, Downing Street said.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters on Wednesday that the UK was “intensifying” its support for Ukraine for “the kind of next-generation military technology that will help win this war.”
He said the tanks could be a “game-changing capability” as the UK considers whether to supply Challenger II tanks to Kyiv.
“It is clear that the battle tanks can provide the Ukrainians with a game-changing capability,” he said. “The Prime Minister told the President [Volodymyr] Zelensky last week UK will provide whatever we can provide. The Prime Minister has asked the Defense Secretary to work with partners over the coming weeks on how we can move even more quickly on our support to Ukraine, including the provision of tanks.
A Western official said Ukraine needs tanks and armored vehicles to win back key territory captured by Russia once the weather improves in early spring, especially around fortified positions.
The same official said that a reported request by the Ukrainian government for around 300 tanks was “not an unreasonable number” to create the mass needed for a second successful counteroffensive against the Russian invaders.
Much attention is now focused on whether Germany will also agree to send 2 Leopard tanks, paving the way for EU countries to do the same. Since the tanks are German-made, Berlin’s permission is required to export them.
Poland has said it is ready to send heavy weapons. “A company of Leopard tanks will be transferred to Ukraine as part of the international coalition building. such a decision is already [taken] In Poland, “President Andrzej Duda said in a tweet,
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Tageschau news channel in an interview on Wednesday that he is certain that Germany will eventually deliver the Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
“Even if Germany has some rational argument for not doing it, Germany will do it anyway at a later date. We have already done this with the self-propelled howitzer, the IRIS-T anti- aircraft systems and most recently with the Murder and Patriot systems,” Kuleba continued.
He said Berlin has followed a pattern of hesitation when it comes to discussions about the supply of advanced weapons. Kuleba concluded, “First they say no, then they staunchly defend their decision, only to finally say yes.”