Lviv/Moscow (EFE).- Ukrainian soldiers have begun their instruction in handling the British Challenger 2 tanks, while kyiv asks its partners to speed up and expand arms shipments given the difficult situation in eastern Ukraine, where the intensity of Russia’s attacks.
“Ukrainian tank crews have arrived in the UK to begin training for their fight against Russia,” the British Ministry of Defense announced on Twitter today, where it posted photos of Ukrainian servicemen disembarking from a Royal Air Force plane.
As reported by the Ukrainian ambassador to France, Vadym Omelchenko, the West has officially approved “the supply of 321 tanks to Ukraine.”
A figure that is close to that claimed by the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny, who had said that to carry out a new offensive the Army needs at least 300 tanks.
Zelenksi asks to speed up supplies
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for “accelerating events, expediting supply and opening up new weapons options necessary for Ukraine.”
For this, it is “very important to maintain the dynamics of defense support from our partners”, he said, stressing that “the speed of supply has been and will be one of the key factors in this war”.
Zelenski received a new endorsement today from the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, who did not rule out in a press conference that Warsaw deliver F-16 fighters to kyiv “in coordination with NATO countries”, something with respect to which the West has not shown consensus.
The Ukrainian president justified his claims by the serious situation on the front, mainly in Donetsk, which is “very tough”: Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas of this region are under continuous Russian attacks, with “constant attempts to break” the Ukrainian defenses .
The US Institute for War Studies (ISW) acknowledged that “the military aid provided by the Western coalition led by the US has been essential for the survival of Ukraine”, but it separated the delays in these supplies, periodically criticized by kyiv, from the few Ukrainian advances.
“Factors endogenous to the Ukrainian army and Ukrainian political decision-making (…) have contributed to delaying counter-offensives,” said the ISW, which refrained from evaluating Ukrainian military decisions as “optimal.”
Russia redoubles its pressure in the east
Meanwhile, Russia is taking advantage of the fact that the West has not yet sent its armored vehicles to redouble its pressure in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian command recognized in its war report that “the enemy is carrying out offensive operations in the directions of Liman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Novopavlivka”, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
For his part, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, reported on the Russian advance in the southern Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions, where Russian troops “occupied more favorable positions.”
“In the framework of the offensive of the South military group in the direction of Donetsk in the last 24 hours, more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were annihilated, a tank, an armored personnel carrier, two cars, two Grad multiple launchers, a D-30 howitzer and a US-made AN/TPQ-50 radar,” he said.
He also claimed responsibility for the destruction during the last day of a Gvozdika self-propelled gun and an artillery ammunition warehouse of the Ukrainian Army in the southern region of Kherson, where kyiv denounced bombardments the day before that caused the death of at least three civilians and injured ten others. people.
Fighting in Vuhledar
The interim leader imposed by Russia in Donetsk, Denís Pushilin, assured today that the Russian troops “have established themselves in the east of Vuhledar and work is also being done on its outskirts”, although he acknowledged that it is still too early to predict the taking of this location.
The Russians consider this town an important logistics center, the capture of which would stop the supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the direction of Marinka, attached to the city of Donetsk.
The Ukrainian General Staff has not confirmed the alleged Russian advance in the eastern part of Vuhledar, but acknowledged that the town is “under enemy fire”.
Pushilin further argued that the capture of the city of Blahodatne, north of Bakhmut, which the Wagner group of Russian mercenaries attributes to itself but which Ukraine also denies, allowed Russian forces to “improve their positions and cut off one of the supply routes of the Ukrainian units» that supply this coveted stronghold.