According to Vadim Prystaiko, the UK also offered to increase the number of Ukrainian military personnel, whom it is ready to trainMOSCOW, March 4.
/tass/. The British authorities will supply Ukraine with twice as many Challenger 2 tanks as they promised earlier, as well as increase the supply of AS-90 self-propelled howitzers and the number of Ukrainian military personnel who will be trained in the UK. This was stated by the Ambassador of Ukraine to the kingdom Vadim Prystaiko.
According to him, the British side decided to increase the supply of tanks after the visit of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to London. "As for the [Challenger 2] tanks, 14 tanks were promised to us, and as a result of President Zelensky's visit, an agreement was reached that this number would double," Prystaiko said on Saturday in an interview with the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty (recognized in the Russian media as a foreign agent). "We will now receive 33 155-millimeter AS-90 installations from Britain," the ambassador added. Earlier it was reported that London will supply Kiev with 30 such self-propelled howitzers.
Prystaiko also said that the UK has offered to increase the number of Ukrainian military, which it is ready to train. "If we are talking about military training, we requested one number, and now Britain is offering us to increase it 2.5 times this year," the ambassador said. According to him, since the beginning of the conflict in Donbass, 25 thousand Ukrainian soldiers have been trained under the leadership of British advisers.
At the same time, Prystaiko said that Ukraine faces difficulties in its attempts to convince Western countries to supply it with military aircraft. "We are looking for options," he added.
On January 19, it was announced that the new package of British military assistance to Ukraine, in addition to a squadron of 14 Challenger 2 tanks and 30 AS-90 self-propelled howitzers, would include armored recovery vehicles, equipment for clearing minefields and pointing pontoon bridges, and dozens of drones for correcting artillery fire. It mentions sending to Ukraine "hundreds of armored and protected vehicles," 100,000 artillery shells, as well as hundreds of missiles, including GMLRS guided missiles and Starstreak MANPADS, medium-range anti-aircraft missiles, as well as 600 Brimstone missiles designed to defeat tanks.
On February 8, before a meeting with the President of Ukraine in London, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that Kiev was invited to begin training in the kingdom of marines and fighter pilots in service with NATO. Later, the representative of Sunak clarified that the government has not yet made a decision on the transfer of fighters to Ukraine, this issue will be studied from different sides.
