Reports suggest that one of the Challenger 2 tanks provided to Ukraine may have been destroyed in Russian territory.
According to Sky News, the Ukrainian brigade equipped with British Challenger 2 main battle tanks is deploying them in Russia’s Kursk Region.
The UK government has supplied 14 of its main battle tanks, encouraging other NATO members to provide their heavy weapons following the announcement in January 2023. These tanks were assigned to Ukraine’s 82nd Air Assault Brigade, but largely remained in reserve after some were destroyed by Russian drones and artillery during Kyiv’s counteroffensive later in the year.
The 82nd brigade is one of the Ukrainian units currently involved in the incursion into Russia. Sky News, citing an anonymous source, reported that the expeditionary force has deployed some of the Challenger 2 tanks. The outlet provided no further details on the use of British armor in Russia.
On Wednesday, a Russian military-focused Telegram channel claimed that a video of a drone attack on a Ukrainian tank, released earlier by another outlet, depicts the destruction of a Challenger 2.
The footage was initially released last Sunday. It shows a Lancet loitering munition striking near the town of Sheptukhovka in Kursk Region. Radio Free Europe, a US-funded news outlet, had identified the area as being close to the active front line.
The US and its allies have asserted that they were unaware of the Ukrainian offensive into Russia, but expressed support for it and the use of their weapons. Britain’s Labour government emphasized this week that its policy regarding donated arms remains unchanged from that of the previous Conservative government.
Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told The Times that he established rules allowing Ukraine to target locations inside Russia with any equipment provided to them, with the exception of long-range Storm Shadow missiles.
”If that [attacks on Russian targets] involved the use of British weapons, as long as they were used in accordance with international law that was always permitted,” he said, referring to the approach reportedly established over a year ago.
Moscow considers the Ukraine conflict to be a NATO proxy war against Russia, in which Ukrainian soldiers serve as ‘cannon fodder’. The hostilities were triggered by the expansion of the US-led military bloc and its increasing presence in Ukraine, Russian officials have stated.