Russia Ukraine War: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday (Jan 14) pledged to provide tanks and artillery systems to Ukraine, amid missile attacks by Moscow targeting several Ukrainian cities for the first time in nearly two weeks.
Ten people, including two children, were injured in the southeastern city of Dnipro, where a Russian missile strike destroyed part of a residential building, officials said. Infrastructure was also affected in the western Lviv region and northeastern Kharkiv. The capital Kyiv was also targeted.
The British leader’s Downing Street office said in a statement that Sunak pledged to provide Challenger 2 tanks and other artillery systems after speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday.
It was not said when and how many tanks would be delivered. British media have reported that four British Army Challenger 2 main battle tanks will be sent to Eastern Europe immediately, with eight more later, without citing sources.
Zelensky tweeted thanking Sunak on Saturday for “decisions that will not only strengthen us on the battlefield, but also send the right signal to other partners.”
Ukraine has for months been seeking supplies of heavy tanks, including US Abrams and German Leopard 2 tanks, but Western leaders are proceeding cautiously.
The Czech Republic and Poland have provided Soviet-era T-72 tanks to the Ukrainian army. Poland has also expressed readiness to provide a company of Leopard tanks, but President Andrzej Duda insisted during his recent visit to the Ukrainian city of Lviv that the move was to be made as one element of a larger international coalition of tank aid to Kyiv. Will be possible only in form.
Earlier this month, France said it would send Ukraine the AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicle, which is called “light tank” in French. The US and Germany announced the same week that they would send Bradley combat vehicles and Marder armored personnel carriers, respectively, for the first time.
Sunak’s announcement comes as the Russian military fired missiles at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine on Saturday in a massive barrage earlier in the day.
In the southeastern city of Dnipro, a missile strike destroyed part of a multi-storey residential building, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kirylo Tymoshenko, said on a telegram. There is a possibility of people being trapped under the debris, he added. Rescue operation was going on.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, Gov. Oleh Sinihubov said two Russian missiles struck an infrastructure again on Saturday afternoon, after a similar attack in the morning. In the city of Kharkiv, the metro suspended operations amid the attacks, its According to Telegram channel.
Another infrastructure facility in the western Lviv region was affected, according to Gov. Maxim Kozitsky.
Air defense systems were also activated in other regions of Ukraine, and as air raid sirens rang out across the country in the afternoon, regional authorities urged local residents to take shelter.
The governor of the southern Mykolaiv region, Vitaly Kim, indicated in a Telegram post that some missiles had been intercepted in his province.
Earlier in the day, explosions also rocked the capital Kyiv. The blasts happened before the sirens sounded, which is unusual. It is likely that the blast preceded the warning sirens because the attack was carried out by ballistic missiles, which are faster than cruise missiles or drones.
According to Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat, Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles fired from the north.
“It is not easy for us to detect and shoot down a ballistic missile,” he told local media. The warning about the missile threat was delayed due to a lack of radar data and information from other sources.
According to Ukrainian officials, an infrastructure target was targeted in the morning missile strike.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the explosions were heard in the Dnieperovsky district, a residential area on the left bank of the Dnieper River. Klitschko also said that fragments of a missile fell on a non-residential area in the Holosievsky district on the right bank, and a building there briefly caught fire. No casualty has been reported so far.
It was the first attack on the Ukrainian capital since 1 January.
On Saturday morning, two Russian missiles targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. Governor Sinihubov said the attacks from S-300 missiles “targeted energy and industrial facilities in Kharkiv and the (outlying) region.” No casualties were reported, but emergency power cuts are possible in the city and other settlements in the region, the official said.
The attacks followed conflicting reports on the fate of Soledar, a salt mining town in Ukraine’s troubled east. Russia claims its forces have captured the city, a development that would mark a rare victory for the Kremlin after a series of humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.
Ukrainian officials and Zelensky insist that the fight for Soledar continues.
Moscow has portrayed the battle for the city and the nearby town of Bakhmut as key to capturing the eastern region of Donbass, which includes the partially captured Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and as a way to grind up the best Ukrainian forces and force them launching a counterattack elsewhere as a way of stopping.
But it cuts both ways, as Ukraine says its fierce defense of eastern strongholds has helped tie down Russian forces. Western officials and analysts say the importance of the two cities is more symbolic than strategic.
Read also: Ukraine-Russia war: Moscow says it took soldiers in fighting in eastern Ukraine
Read also: US to send $3.75 billion in military aid to Ukraine, its neighbors