A first picture of a British Challenger II tank on Ukrainian soil has been released by the country’s defence ministry today. In an image posted on social media Ukranian Defence minister Oleksii Reznikov shared a photograph of a British Challenger II tank alongside military vehicles donated from the US and Germany.
With the caption “They have arrived!” the Defence Ministry of Ukraine tweeted: “Strykers and Cougars from the US, Challengers from the UK, Marders from Germany have officially joined the Air Assault Forces of the #UAarmy!
“The greatest vehicles for the best soldiers. Onward!”
Strykers and Cougars are US armoured fighting and troop carrying vehicles, and the Marder is a German infantry fighting vehicle. British Challenger II tanks were expected to arrive in Ukraine in late March, and this is thought to be the first image of one of them on Ukrainian soil.
German newspaper Der Speigel reported 18 Leopard 2A tanks and a total of 40 Marder fighting vehicles had arrived in the beleagured Eastern European nation to join Ukrainian forces.
Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said he had “the honour of running a new addition to our armed units”.
He said: “Today, together with the commander of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Major General Maksym ‘Mike’ Myrhorodsky, and our paratroopers, I had the honour of running a new addition to our armoured units.
“Just a year ago, no one could have thought that the support of partners would be so powerful. That the entire civilised world would reboot and finally resist the bloody aggressor, the terrorist country of the Russian Federation.”
Referring to the British Challenger tanks, he added: “I can say that even the driver of a Rolls Royce will not be as comfortable as the crew of this work of martial art on off-road.”
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