France has promised to supply Ukraine with AMX 10-RC tanks within two months French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecorny promised his Ukrainian counterpart Alexei Reznikov that Paris would supply Kiev with AMX 10-RC tanks within two months.
The other day, Poland and the United Kingdom also announced their intention to transfer their armored vehicles to Ukraine. What the Western tanks that Ukraine will receive are capable of - in the material of "Gazeta.Ru».
French AMX 10-RC
The Minister of the Armed Forces of France, Sebastien Lecorny, spoke by phone with the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Alexey Reznikov, according to the website of the French department.
"The ministers agreed that the delivery of French-made AMX 10-RC light combat tanks, the principle of which was determined during the meeting of President Macron and President Zelensky on January 4, will take place within two months," the statement said.
The ministers also discussed "the organization of training of Ukrainian servicemen to handle these tanks." The heads of the defense departments also talked about "the use of a special fund in the amount of 200 million euros created by France to provide Ukraine with defense equipment."
In addition, Lecorny "confirmed France's unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression" and "condemned the Russian bombing of Ukraine's civilian infrastructure."
The French ministry said in a statement that Reznikov "highly appreciated the quality of the Crotale air defense systems recently supplied by France, which were used to protect Kiev during the recent Russian bombing."
The AMX-10RC is a French heavy armored vehicle, which is also called a wheeled tank. The car was created by the company Satory Military Vehicles together with GIAT and Renault by order of the French Armed Forces. The armored car was intended for the role of a reconnaissance vehicle, which is also capable of fighting enemy armored vehicles.
Serial production of the AMX-10RC was carried out from 1976 to 1994. During this period, 457 wheeled tanks were produced. 337 of them entered service with the French army, which used them in the Gulf War and several peacekeeping operations. France supplied another 120 armored vehicles to Morocco and Qatar.
The abbreviation RC stands for Roues-Canon - "cannon on wheels". The length of the AMX-10RC is more than six meters, with a cannon - more than nine, the width of the wheeled tank is about three meters. The 17-ton combat vehicle is equipped with a 105 mm cannon and two twin 7.62 mm machine guns. The crew consists of four people. On a flat road, an armored car can reach speeds of up to 85 km per hour.
On January 4, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Twitter that his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron had promised to hand over French light tanks to Kiev.
"I thanked him for the decision to transfer light tanks and the Bastion armored personnel carrier to Ukraine, as well as for intensifying work with partners in the same direction," the Ukrainian leader wrote.
The editorial office of France 24 clarified with reference to the Elysee Palace that it is about the supply of AMX-10 RC tanks.
German Leopard 2
On January 11, Polish President Andrzej Duda, after a meeting with Zelensky, said that Warsaw would hand over new Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev.
"A company of tanks will be transferred within the framework of the international coalition," he said.
On January 13, Reuters reported with reference to the presidential office that Poland wants to send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine if a larger coalition of countries does so.
It is explained that the tanks will be transferred if the partners' position regarding combat tanks changes and a joint European cooperation is formed.
In addition, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said that his country is also ready to allocate some German Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far refused to supply Ukraine with Leopards.
Leopard 2 is a German main tank. The development of the machine began in 1970, and the first prototype was created in 1972. And the first serial Leopard 2 was handed over to the German army on October 25, 1979. By 2015, more than 3,200 tanks of this type were produced. By 2017, Leopards in various modifications were also in service with the armies of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark, Greece and Finland.
The crew of the tank consists of four people: the commander, the gunner, the loader and the driver. "Leopards" have a combined multilayer armor, a gun stabilized in two planes and night vision devices. Almost all Leopard 2s are equipped with a 120 mm Rheinmetall smoothbore gun with a 44-caliber barrel length, two 7.62 mm machine guns - paired with a cannon and an anti-aircraft gun located on the roof of the tower.
British Challenger 2
The British government has confirmed that the kingdom intends to supply Ukraine with tanks, the Financial Times newspaper reported on January 11, citing a representative of the office of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Rishi Sunak.
"We are accelerating our support for Ukraine by (providing) next-generation military technologies that will help win this war... It is obvious that battle tanks can provide Ukrainians with the opportunity to change the course of the war," the publication quoted the official as saying.
According to him, Sunak called on British Defense Minister Ben Wallace in the coming weeks to "work with partners" to move faster in support of Ukraine, including by providing tanks.
According to the publication, the UK is considering transferring its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.
Challenger 2 is the main battle tank of the British Ground Forces, it was produced from 1994 to 2009.
The crew of the tank consists of four people - the commander, the gunner, the loader and the driver. The length of the machine is more than eight meters, with a gun - 11.5 m, and a width of 3.5 m. The tank is only two and a half meters high. Its mass is more than 62,000 kg. The main weapon is a 120 mm L30 cannon, in addition, the tank is equipped with a 7.62mm GPMG machine gun and a 7.62 mm L37A2 anti-aircraft machine gun. On the road, it can reach speeds of up to 59 km per hour, and on rough terrain - up to 40 km per hour.
Maria Shustrova
