British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. , File photo | Photo Credit: AP
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to provide tanks and artillery systems to Ukraine on Saturday missile attack by moscow targeting the Ukrainian capital and other cities.
Mr Sunak’s Downing Street office said in a statement that he pledged to provide the Challenger 2 tank and other artillery systems after speaking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday.
It did not specify when and how many tanks would be supplied. British media have reported that four British Army Challenger 2 main battle tanks will be sent to Eastern Europe immediately, with eight more later, without citing sources.
Mr Zelensky thanked Mr Sunak in a tweet on Saturday for “decisions that will not only strengthen us on the battlefield, but also send the right signal to other partners.”
Ukraine has for months been seeking supplies of heavy tanks, including US Abrams and German Leopard 2 tanks, but Western leaders are proceeding cautiously.
The Czech Republic and Poland have provided Soviet-era T-72 tanks to the Ukrainian army. Poland has also expressed readiness to provide a company of Leopard tanks, but President Andrzej Duda insisted during his recent visit to the Ukrainian city of Lviv that the move was to be made as one element of a larger international coalition of tank aid to Kyiv. Will be possible only in form.
Earlier this month, France pledged to supply its AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicles – designated in French as “light tanks” – to Ukraine as well.
Mr Sunak’s announcement came hours after a series of explosions rocked Kyiv on Saturday morning. Ukrainian officials said an infrastructure target was hit in a missile strike.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the explosions were heard in the Dnieperovsky district, a residential area on the left bank of the Dnieper River. Klitschko also said that fragments of a missile fell on a non-residential area in the Holosievsky district on the right bank, and a building there briefly caught fire. No casualty has been reported so far.
It was not immediately clear whether multiple facilities in Kyiv were targeted or just one. There hasn’t been a missile attack on the capital of Ukraine since New Year’s Eve, January 1st.
Tymoshenko said that in the outer Kyiv region, a residential building in the village of Kopyliev was jolted and windows of nearby houses were blown out.
According to the regional government Oleksiy Kuleba, a total of 18 private homes were damaged in the region. “Roofs and windows have been damaged,” Kuleba said in a Telegram post, “but there were no casualties.” He said the fire at a “critical infrastructure facility” in the area has been brought under control.
Earlier on Saturday, two Russian missiles targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, the governor of the Kharkiv region said.
Oleh Sinihubov said the Russian military fired two S-300 missiles at Kharkiv’s industrial district. Sinihubov said the attacks “targeted energy and industrial facilities in Kharkiv and the (outlying) region.” No casualties were reported, but emergency power cuts are possible in the city and other settlements in the region, the official said.
The attacks followed conflicting reports on the fate of Soledar, a salt mining town in Ukraine’s troubled east. Russia claims its forces have captured the city, a development that would mark a rare victory for the Kremlin after a series of humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.
Ukrainian officials and President Zelensky insisted The battle for Soledar continues.
Moscow has portrayed the battle for the city and the nearby town of Bakhmut as key to capturing the eastern region of Donbass, which includes the partially captured Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and as a way to grind up the best Ukrainian forces and force them launching a counterattack elsewhere as a way of stopping.
But it cuts both ways, as Ukraine says its fierce defense of eastern strongholds has helped tie down Russian forces. Western officials and analysts say the importance of the two cities is more symbolic than strategic.