Ukraine’s ambassador to London, Vadym Prystaiko, said the British authorities would provide Kyiv with twice as many Challenger tanks and self-propelled howitzers, as well as increase the number of Ukrainian troops to be trained.
According to him, the British side decided to increase the supply of tanks after the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to London.
“As for the Challenger 2 tanks, we received 14 tanks, and following President Zelensky’s visit, an agreement was reached that this number will double,” Prystaiko said in an interview with Ukrainian Radio Liberty on Saturday.
“Now we will receive 33 155-mm AS90 projectiles from the UK,” the ambassador added. Earlier it was reported that London will supply Kyiv with 30 self-propelled howitzers.
Prystaiko also revealed that the UK has offered to increase the number of Ukrainian forces it wants to train, and the ambassador said: “If we were talking about training soldiers, we asked for one figure, and now Britain is asking us to increase it by 2.5 times. once this year.” According to him, since the beginning of the conflict in Donbas, 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained in the UK.
Meanwhile, Prystaiko said that Ukraine is facing difficulties in its efforts to convince Western countries to provide it with military aircraft, and added: “We are looking for options.”
On January 19, it was announced that the new package of British military assistance to Ukraine, in addition to a squadron of 14 Challenger 2 tanks and 30 AS-90 self-propelled howitzers, would include armored rescue vehicles, demining equipment, pontoon bridges. and dozens of drones to correct artillery fire.”
“Hundreds of armored and protected vehicles” and 100,000 artillery shells have already been sent to Ukraine, as well as hundreds of missiles, including GMLRS and Starstreak MANPADS, medium-range anti-aircraft missiles, and 600 Brimstone anti-tank missiles. rockets.
And on February 8, before a meeting with the President of Ukraine in London, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Kyiv had been invited to start training the kingdom’s marines and fighter pilots by NATO forces.
Later, a spokesman for Sunak explained that the government had not yet made a decision on the transfer of militants to Ukraine, and this issue would be studied from different angles.
Source: TASS