Britain to announce decision to transfer tanks to Ukraine next week
The British government is expected to officially announce the decision to transfer Challenger 2 battle tanks to Ukraine on Monday, 16 January.
Source: European Pravda; The Guardian, citing sources in Ukraine
Details: According to the agency, Ukraine is convinced that Britain will soon announce its plans to transfer around 10 units of Challenger 2 tanks, which it hopes will help Germany finally allow the re-export of their Leopard 2 tanks.
It is noted that Britain has already made a decision in favour of this step, as pressure on Berlin grows ahead of the meeting of Western defence ministers next Friday in the framework of the Ramstein format.
Earlier this week, it became known that Britain is considering the possibility of supplying tanks to Ukraine after months of requests from Kyiv, but the final decision rests with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The small number of tanks taken from Britain's stockpile of 227 units won't make much of a difference on the battlefield, but it will be the first time any Western country has agreed to send its heavy armoured vehicles to Ukraine.
Kyiv hopes that this will unlock the re-export for Germany. There are more than 2,000 Leopard 2 tanks in service with the armies of 13 countries in Europe, but the sales contracts require Berlin's consent to re-export any German-made equipment to Ukraine.
Background:
The German government stated that they have not yet received an official request from Poland to transfer their Leopards to Ukraine.
Poland has announced that they are ready to transfer a company of Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine as part of a coalition with their partners.
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