NARRATIVE – The United Kingdom announced on Saturday that it is about to deliver fourteen Challenger 2 heavy tanks to Ukraine.
Correspondent in Moscow
The Orthodox New Year was marked on Saturday in Ukraine by one of the deadliest Russian strikes for civilians since the start of the war: more than twenty dead, according to a report established the day after the fall of a Kh- 22 of a ton on a ten-storey apartment building in Dnipro, in the east of the country. The device, which was allegedly fired from Kursk, Russia, left 73 injured, according to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, Valentyn Reznichenko. On Sunday, the emergency services continued to be active in the ruins of the building, “the fate of more than forty people remains unknown”, according to Valentin Reznichenko. One hundred to two hundred inhabitants were also homeless and some 1,700 others deprived of electricity and heating in Dnipro. A sad reality now daily, power cuts caused by Russian bombing affecting most regions.
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For the single day of Saturday, “the enemy carried out three airstrikes and about fifty missile launches during the day”, said the staff of the Ukrainian army. The Russian Defense Ministry, without citing Dnipro, claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying that “all the designated objectives have been achieved”. Because it hit a civilian apartment building head-on, the strike on Dnipro will go down as a very black day in the dark annals of this first year of conflict. “Is it possible to stop the Russian terror? Yes it’s possible. Can we do it other than on the battlefield in Ukraine? Unfortunately no “, reacted Volodymyr Zelensky. It is in this context that the United Kingdom promised delivery to Ukraine on Saturday, ” in the next weeks “, fourteen Challenger 2 heavy tanks. A proven armored vehicle, in service with the British army since 1994 and which has been deployed in the past in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Iraq. In the midst of a debate between Europeans on sending heavy tanks to the Ukrainians, the British are the first countries to commit to making this type of equipment available to the kyiv forces.
“A good signal to other partners”
Ukraine has certainly already received from its allies heavy tanks of Soviet design – nearly three hundred – but still none of Western manufacture. Poland said it was ready last Wednesday to deliver fourteen Leopard 2 heavy tanks of German design, – which requires the prior approval of Berlin. Several Western states, including France with its AMX 10-RC, have also announced the supply of lighter infantry or reconnaissance tanks. UK decisions “will send the right signal to other partners”, says Volodymyr Zelensky. Russian diplomacy also reacted, but to judge that this shipment of arms was not going “in no way to accelerate the end of military hostilities, but only to intensify them, causing new victims”.
Vladimir Putin welcomed Sunday the capture of the town of Soledar, in the Donbass, always denied by kyiv which affirms that the “fighting continues in the city”. “The dynamic is positive and everything is going according to plan”, said the head of the Kremlin on Russian public television. On Friday, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that the “liberation” of Soledar had taken place the day before, “January 12 in the evening”. Without strategic importance as such, the city was disputed with rage and at the cost of massive losses – the objective symbolically embodying for the Russians the possibility of a first success after the failures recorded in recent months.
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With the capture of the city, Evgueni Prigogine, the “boss” of the mercenaries of the Wagner group, very involved in this battle, intended to mark a decisive point in the rivalry which opposes him to the Ministry of Defence. Friday, the announcement of the “liberation” de Soledar has also given rise to quite significant guerrilla communication. A first press release from the Defense not mentioning the contribution of Wagner’s fighters, Prigogine had split a press release to regret, via his press service, “permanent attempts to steal victories” of his group. Rare fact and unprecedented tribute, the Russian Ministry of Defense then published a second press release welcoming the ” courage “ of Wagner’s men in Soledar, confirming official recognition of this “shadow army” which, however, has no legal status in Russia.
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