LONDON - Britain is weighing whether to send a small number of tanks to Ukraine, a move that would reverse the West’s nearly yearlong resistance to deploying some of its mightiest firepower against Russia.
No decision has yet been made on whether the Challenger II tanks – reportedly as few as 10 – will be donated to Ukraine. But such a move is being considered, an official spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters at a Downing Street briefing on Tuesday.
Mr Sunak had spoken with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine a week earlier “about what would be most effective in helping Ukraine,” said the spokesperson, who is not normally identified by name under the rules for the briefing.
Kyiv has demanded Western tanks almost since the start of the war to supplement the Soviet-era and Russian-made tanks that were in Ukraine’s stockpiles or supplied by other countries in Eastern Europe.
Those tanks are not compatible with the size of ammunition that is used in most Nato states, leaving Ukraine constantly on the hunt for more munitions.
The Challenger II would be the first Western-made main battle tank to be sent to Ukraine since Russia invaded last February.
Defence officials in the United States and Europe have long worried that sending tanks would signal more direct involvement in the fighting, and could prompt President Vladimir Putin of Russia to escalate the conflict. The internal British discussions were reported earlier by Sky News.
The move follows pledges by other Western powers to give Kyiv heavy armoured fighting vehicles. The country’s foreign minister, Mr Dmytro Kuleba, over the weekend welcomed such pledges as a sign that “the time of weapons taboo has passed.”
Last week, France said it would deliver an unspecified but limited number of French AMX-10 reconnaissance vehicles.
That announcement was quickly followed by a decision by the United States to send Ukraine 50 M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and by Germany, which pledged 40 Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
The Ukrainian ambassador to London said in an interview on Tuesday that the number of tanks that Britain was considering fell far short of what was needed. “A dozen tanks is not enough – we need hundreds,” Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko said in an interview with a British news show, LBC’s “Tonight with Andrew Marr.”
Still, sending Challenger IIs could ratchet up pressure on Germany to commit to sending its Leopard II tanks to Ukraine, as Kyiv wants. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has maintained that Berlin would not be the first Nato ally to send such equipment into the war.
On Tuesday, Mr Kuleba met with Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, as she visited eastern Kharkiv, and urged Germany to send Leopards.
“The longer it takes to make the decision, the more people will die,” he said at their joint news conference, according to news reports. “The sooner this decision is made, the sooner this war will end with Ukraine’s victory and there will be no more war in Europe.”
Mr Ben Barry, a land warfare expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said Britain has only 227 Challenger II tanks on hand, and ammunition and spare parts are limited.
By comparison, there are several thousand German-made Leopards used by national militaries across Europe, Mr Barry said, but Berlin must give its approval before they can be donated to Ukraine. He said Ukraine is seeking an additional 300 battle tanks.
“Ukraine has said that it wants to mount significant offensive operations this coming year, in order to push the Russians back – ideally to push them out,” Mr Barry said. “And it’s said to do that, it needs extra Western armour.” NYTIMES
