The first British Challenger tanks were delivered to Kyiv

Support for Ukraine from the first hour The United Kingdom announced in early February that it would train Ukrainian fighter pilots, opening the door to providing aircraft to NATO standards in the long term.

The first British Challenger tanks have arrived in Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced Monday evening, along with new Western military equipment to help Kiev repel a Russian invasion.

Oleksiï Reznikov pointed out that “British Challengers, American Strykers and Cougars and German Marauders” were “added to Ukrainian units”.

The minister posted a photo of the vehicles on his Facebook account without saying when they arrived. A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian ministry, Iryna Zolotar, confirmed that the Challenger tanks are “already in Ukraine,” without providing an exact number at this stage.

“Better equipped, but no less dangerous”

The British Ministry of Defense announced earlier on Monday that Ukrainian soldiers have completed their training in England to learn how to handle 14 Challenger 2 tanks provided by London to Ukraine in the face of a Russian invasion.

Their training began shortly after the announcement in early January of the United Kingdom’s delivery of these tanks. “The UK is sending Challenger 2 tanks, which will soon be in the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the British ministry said in a statement.

London had previously indicated delivery in March, without providing further details on the delivery schedule.

British Defense Minister Ben Wallace announced that an unspecified number of Ukrainian soldiers thus trained would return to their country “better armed, but no less dangerous”.

Westerners believe Ukraine has the right to defend itself, but some are reluctant to provide weapons that could escalate the conflict by allowing Ukraine to attack Russia.

Slovakia recently delivered four MiG-29s to Ukraine and Poland has promised to do the same.