British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has decided to send a squadron of advanced Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, a breakthrough for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s appeals for heavy NATO-style tanks.
“In 2023, the international community will not let Russia wait us out while inflicting terrible suffering on Ukrainian civilians,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Parliament. “The international community recognizes that equipping Ukraine to push Russia out of its territory is as important as equipping them to defend what they already have.”
Wallace’s announcement represents a new high watermark in the quality of Western military aid to Ukraine, which has had access only to tanks of Soviet-era design over the last year. The incoming armaments dovetail with tranches of NATO-grade artillery, as well as infantry fighting vehicles from the United States and Germany, as Wallace forecast an expanded training initiative to teach Ukrainian forces not only how to operate these weapons but how to coordinate their use in the manner characteristic of NATO militaries.
“Today’s package is an important increase in Ukraine’s capabilities. It means they can go from resisting to expelling Russian forces from Ukrainian soil,” he said. “That requires a new level of support — the combat power only achieved by combinations of main battle tank squadrons, operating alongside divisional artillery groups, and further deep precision fires enabling targeting of Russian logistics and command nodes at greater distance.”
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The British announcement punctuates a Western effort to upgrade Ukrainian military capabilities before the return of spring. Western and Ukrainian officials believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to launch another major offensive in the spring, after months of mobilization drives and training operations, a prospect that has Kyiv scrambling to acquire the advanced Western weaponry needed to fend off the vast numbers that Russian forces might bring to bear.
“The special military operation will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday in response to the British decision. “These tanks burn well and will burn just like all the others. The goals of the special military operation will be achieved.”
Zelensky hailed the British move as “a good example” for other Western countries while acknowledging that Russian forces — after months of being caught on the back foot by a Ukrainian counteroffensive — will make another effort to go on offense.
“The fact that Russia is preparing a new attempt to seize the initiative in the war, the fact that the nature of hostilities at the front requires new decisions in the defense supply — all this only emphasizes how important it is to coordinate our efforts, efforts of all members of the coalition to defend Ukraine and freedom,” Zelensky said, “and to speed up decision-making.”
Zelensky’s expectations align with independent Western analysis of Putin’s path forward in the conflict.
“The Kremlin is likely preparing to conduct a decisive strategic action in the next six months intended to regain the initiative and end Ukraine’s current string of operational successes,” a team of analysts from the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War wrote in a Sunday bulletin.
“Putin and senior Kremlin officials continue reiterating that Russia has not abandoned its maximalist objectives despite Russian defeats on the battlefield. While Putin has not changed his objectives for the war, there is emerging evidence that he is changing fundamental aspects of Russia’s approach to the war by undertaking several new lines of effort.”
Putin tapped Russian Army Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the Russian military, as the top commander of the invading forces last week.
“It is the visible tip of an iceberg of factionalism within the Russian command,” Wallace said of Gerasimov’s appointment. “Putin apparently remains bullish, and with Gerasimov’s deference to the president never in doubt, we now would expect a trend back towards a Russian offensive — no matter how much loss of life accompanies it.”
Wallace’s announcement coincided with a parallel visit to Kyiv by Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s top deputy, Wendy Sherman, who met Monday with one of Zelensky’s top advisers.
“We are committed to openness and transparency of all information because now we feel that when we are together in this battle, when the United States is with us, it is very important and brings victory closer,” Zelensky adviser Andriy Yermak told Sherman. “But, of course, we want to gain this victory without losing our people, our cities, and infrastructure.”
Russian forces have conducted regular bombardments of Ukrainian energy infrastructure, in an apparent effort to cause a humanitarian crisis and enervate the Ukrainian counteroffensive. That stratagem has unfolded alongside Kremlin efforts to deter Western powers from sending improved weaponry to Ukraine, but Wallace underscored that Russian war crimes have whet London’s appetite to send tanks.
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“Our decision today is a calibrated response to Russia’s growing aggression and indiscriminate bombing,” he said. “The Kremlin must recognize that it is their behavior that is solidifying the international resolve and that despite the propaganda, Ukraine and her partners are focused on the defense of Ukraine.”
