Ukraine will get “DOUBLE as many British Challenger 2 tanks as originally promised” to fight Putin

UKRAINE will receive twice as many British Challenger 2 tanks as originally promised, said the country’s British ambassador.

Vadym Prystaiko said in an interview that Britain decided to double the originally planned 14 after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit last month.

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Prystaiko made the bold statement in a revealing interview with Radio Liberty.

He told European broadcaster: “We were promised 14 tanks and as a result of President Zelenskyy’s visit, it was agreed that this number will double.”

He described the original pledge as “a breakthrough moment when it was necessary to overcome the reluctance of all the other allies”.

“And if you recall, despite the fact that the announcement was made, the official confirmation by the Prime Minister took almost a week before he officially repeated it.

“At that point the British were trying to convince all the other allies that there were two options: either the UK goes ahead with this announcement on its own and makes this rupture that everyone else has to go into, or we all take this very important step together as a front, as NATO.

“Britain was successful this time. I think the same process is happening with fighter jets now.”

Prystaiko explained that Britain has offered to more than double the military training effort this year as the war in Ukraine rages on.

The ambassador also claimed that Britain would deploy another 30 heavy artillery pieces to the front.

It comes after we exclusively revealed the Army is out of AS90s and scrambling to buy replacements after promising Kiev their working weapons.

The self-propelled artillery pieces can blast targets up to 15 miles away with 155mm shells, with Top Brass insisting they were “designed to fight Russian forces”.

But the decision to give them away has stripped two regiments of the Royal Artillery stationed at Salisbury Plain, Wilts, of all their working guns.

Prystaiko said Ukraine was reminded by the UK when upgrading artillery to assess “what do we want to achieve and what are the tasks we set ourselves?”.

He also commended the nation for working with allies “to help build consensus” when it comes to arranging the delivery of elite tanks and jets.

Prystaiko added: “Of course we need everything now, but the British are willing to find what they don’t have – often in other markets, in other places.”

The ambassador also referred to Defense Secretary James Heappey, claiming he had urged both countries to halt production of high-tech weapons in order to increase supplies of artillery “which Ukraine now needs”.

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace previously said Britain is not ruling out sending more tanks to Ukraine, but the MoD has no plans to do so at this time.

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