In search of a compromise: why Britain is concerned about the weakening of the army due to military assistance to Ukraine

The transfer of a batch of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine will weaken the British army, The Times reported, citing a statement by the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, General Patrick Sanders.

“The transfer of these funds will temporarily weaken our army, this cannot be denied,” Sanders was quoted as saying.

Journalists note that in his statement, the general hinted at the concern of military circles about the intention of the country's authorities to transfer tanks to Kyiv, taking into account the reduction in their total number in the British army, provided for by plans to reform the armed forces.

“Undoubtedly, our decision will affect our ability to mobilize the armed forces to counter the acute and persistent threat posed by Russia and fulfill our obligations to NATO ... It is critical for us to restore and increase the combat potential of the army in a short time to strengthen the combat capability and maintain the position of a leading NATO ally in Europe," the Chief of the General Staff emphasized. 

Earlier, the office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that London "in the coming weeks" will transfer 14 Challenger 2 tanks to the Kyiv regime after it trains the Ukrainian military to work with them.

In addition to tanks, 30 AS-90 self-propelled howitzers, a significant number of armored vehicles and 100,000 artillery shells will be sent to Ukraine.

At the same time, The Times journalists remind that the British army has a relatively small number of Challenger 2 tanks that it needs for modernization, since Challenger 3 tanks are not built from scratch, but are made by upgrading vehicles already in service.

“According to current plans, only 148 of the 227 Challenger 2 tanks in service will be converted into Challenger 3, and the first batch of new tanks will be transferred (to the troops. -

) until 2030,” the publication explains.

After the information from Sunak's office appeared, the Kremlin commented on London's intention to send tanks to Ukraine.

“The special military operation will continue.

These tanks are on fire and will continue to burn just like the rest.

The goals of the special military operation will be achieved,” said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of Russia.

No offensive 

At the same time, a number of experts in the UK believe that the number of tanks that London intends to provide to Ukraine is not enough to significantly affect the change in the situation on the battlefield.

This, in particular, was written by the military columnist for The Guardian newspaper Dan Sabbah, citing experts from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

• British parliament building

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• © Stefano Valota / EyeEm

According to him, the announced delivery of 14 British Challenger 2 tanks and Poland's intention to transfer a company of German Leopards to Ukraine (subject to obtaining Berlin's approval) can be considered the beginning of the intensification of Western military assistance, but this is much less than the needs of the Ukrainian side, which at the end of last year spoke of the need get 300 tanks.

Experts from the International Institute for Strategic Studies believe that Ukraine needs about 100 tanks just to launch a counteroffensive.

It is worth noting that the Guardian columnist, as well as The Times journalists, notes that London cannot dramatically increase the supply of tanks to Kyiv, since only 227 Challenger 2 are in service with the British Armed Forces.

“From all this it becomes clear that the UK donation of 14 Challenger 2 tanks is not enough as such and that even if London were to decide to provide more units from its nominal fleet of 227 tanks, it alone would not would have succeeded,” Sabbah stated.

deplorable situation

Earlier in the UK, the issue of the state of the country's armed forces and its arsenals of weapons and equipment was already raised against the backdrop of military assistance to Ukraine.

In early January, the famous military historian and journalist Max Hastings, in his column for The Times, said that the British army was in a deplorable state.

“Reductions in the number of army personnel (the most recent - from 82 thousand to 73 thousand) were supposed to compensate for 30 thousand reservists.

However, the situation with the recruitment of reservists is extremely difficult.

The morale and reliability of the reserves is low, not least because of the shipment of equipment intended for them to Ukraine, ”explains Hastings.

• British Armed Forces Challenger 2 tanks

• Legion Media

• © ASWphoto / Alamy Live New

In addition, the journalist criticized the state of the British military-industrial complex, whose leading companies cannot provide the country's army with the necessary weapons to replace those sent to Ukraine.

At the same time, according to Hastings, the head of the British Ministry of Defense, Ben Wallace, is earning political points in the hope of becoming the next Secretary General of NATO and for this reason calls for increasing the supply of weapons to Kyiv, which the army of the United Kingdom lacks.

As Sergei Yermakov, a leading RISS expert, noted in a conversation with RT, a struggle is intensifying in NATO countries between the political establishment, which is ready to send weapons to Ukraine, and the military leadership of individual countries, which is concerned about how the depletion of arsenals will affect the combat capability of their armies.

“Politicians in Europe are trying to imitate Washington and announce the transfer of heavier offensive weapons to Ukraine.

At the same time, they do not take into account their own military needs and tasks.

At the same time, some military leaders and military experts are skeptical about such a practice, realizing that this weakens the combat readiness of their own armed forces, ”the expert said.

According to him, one should not forget that the tanks sent to Ukraine must be provided with fuel and lubricants, engineering vehicles and shells.

“It is necessary to provide a combat-ready crew for the tanks, respectively, it is necessary to train Ukrainian servicemen.

To do this, you will have to distract your own instructors, who will solve problems precisely in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Plus, they will have to supply the necessary shells, which will also undermine the national defense of the state.

But now Europe is dominated by a political decision aimed at emptying its own arsenals to please the political ambitions of Washington and NATO,” Yermakov stressed.

In turn, military observer Alexander Khrolenko, in a conversation with RT, noted that the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance do not have a sufficient number of tanks that can be immediately transferred to Ukraine without losing their own combat readiness.

“NATO countries do not have the required number of tanks, artillery and other types of weapons necessary for a hypothetical victory of the Armed Forces of Ukraine over the Russian army.

Even if we do not take into account the British Challenger 2 tanks and pay attention to the most massive version of the German Leopard 2 tanks, then about 2 thousand such vehicles are distributed among 15 European countries.

It is clear that it is impossible to send all of them to Ukraine.

The United States has more than 4 thousand Abrams tanks in service, but they do not plan to send them to Kyiv, completely shifting this issue to the European NATO allies, ”the expert noted.

At the same time, Russian troops continue to methodically destroy Western armored personnel carriers, armored vehicles and artillery pieces supplied to Ukraine, Khrolenko recalled.

And the number of tanks that the British side and other NATO members intend to transfer to Kyiv does not go beyond the statistical error, the military observer believes.

“14 tanks don't affect anything.

Moreover, they do not even allow the creation of a backbone of specialists in the Armed Forces of Ukraine who could operate NATO equipment.

Because tanks, like any other complex military equipment, are not alone on the battlefield.

They operate as part of units, formations, in cooperation with other types of troops.

Separately and individually, it is impossible to integrate 14 tanks, because it is impractical in terms of logistics, training of personnel, and so on, ”Khrolenko emphasized.

He added that European politicians and strategists declare the need to help Kyiv with weapons, but in the process they “discover” that they themselves do not have much of it.

“The number of tanks currently being discussed in the context of deliveries to Ukraine looks like a compromise.

This is a desire to please the American masters, a desire to harm Russia and at the same time a demonstration of fear that they may run into an answer and be unprepared for it.

Therefore, they do not seek to greatly increase the number of such deliveries,” Khrolenko concluded.