the Armed Forces of Ukraine will not use weapons provided by the West for strikes on the territory of Russia - only for deoccupation of Ukrainian lands, assured the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov.
"Together with our partners, we always officially state that we undertake not to use weapons from foreign partners on the territory of the Russian Federation, only on their units on temporarily occupied Ukrainian lands for the purpose of deoccupying our lands," Reznikov told reporters.
The official also reported that Kyiv is preparing for a new Kremlin offensive in the coming weeks: "We still expect a possible Russian offensive in February. This is from the point of view of symbolism - it is not logical from the military point of view, because they are not ready in terms of resources, but they do it"
Reznikov admitted that before the start of the new offensive of the Russian Federation, Ukraine will not yet receive all the recently announced aid, but the Ukrainian forces are preparing for defense: "Not all Western weapons will arrive in time, but we are ready, we already have created resources and reserves with which we are able to stabilize and hold the blow".
On February 3, the administration of President Joe Biden announced additional security assistance to Ukraine totaling nearly $2.2 billion, which for the first time will include long-range missiles for the previously provided HIMARS systems.
Earlier, the Voice of America reported that the first of the four Leopard 2 tanks, which Ottawa decided to hand over to Kyiv, had already left Canada. In January, the United States announced that it would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, Germany plans to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks, and 14 Challenger 2 heavy tanks will arrive from Great Britain.
At the same time, according to estimates, Western tanks will not reach the front in the coming months before the start of the Russian offensive. As Borys Kremenetskyi, defense attaché of the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States, told the Voice of America Ukrainian service , the supply of Leopard, Challenger and Abrams tanks to Ukraine will depend on the timing of the training of the Ukrainian military, and Leopard and Challenger will most likely be involved in operations at the front by the summer.
At the same time, according to observers, knowledge of the arrival of new tanks will give Ukrainian commanders more freedom in using their current stocks of equipment, and they will help the Ukrainian army to modernize in the future.
The article uses Reuters materials
0 Comments