1 year ago
108
Volodymyr Zelenskiy made an unannounced visit to London this week to rally support behind Ukraine before what is expected to be a major escalation in fighting in the coming weeks. He called on Britain to supply his forces with fighter jets to help defeat the Russian invasion. But while Rishi Sunak was non-committal on planes, the western coalition has made a significant breakthrough on the other big request from Zelensky: modern tanks.
The Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, is in eastern Ukraine and tells Nosheen Iqbal that as the battlefield thaws, the war is likely to escalate quickly and the race is now on to get those western tanks into service. It’s not simple though: the tanks are more complex to operate than the ones Ukraine’s army are used to. And they rely on different supply chains for parts and ammunition.
But as Ukraine waits for the western tanks, it has found another significant donor of military hardware: Russia. Ukrainian forces are recovering abandoned or partly destroyed tanks from the battlefield and revamping them ready to be turned against their invaders. Daniel Boffey describes what the secret refurbishment factories look like inside.
Support The Guardian
The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work.
English (US)