The Ukrainian leader said he and Mr Sunak had made “concrete decisions” to “intensify our efforts to bring victory closer this year” after the call between the two leaders.

Mr Zelensky has spent months begging for Western-made tanks, air defence systems and fighter jets to press home Ukraine’s hard-won advantages in the battle for its survival. Russians were “literally walking on the corpses of their own soldiers” in Soledar where Ukrainians “courageously defend every metre of their native land”, said Hanna Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, on Monday. It came as news broke that two British aid workers have gone missing in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region amid some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.Īndrew Bagshaw, 48, and Christopher Parry, 28, disappeared last week while helping to evacuate citizens near Soledar, close to the frontline city of Bakhmut. The move would bust the taboo that has prevented Western allies from sending modern tanks for fear of escalating the conflict with Russia since Ukraine was invaded in February last year.Ĭhallenger II tanks would “provide the punch needed to knock the Russians out of Ukraine”, one former senior officer said. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, is understood to be supportive of efforts to send British tanks to Ukraine and spoke to Mr Zelensky last week. Britain is considering becoming the first country to send Western tanks to Ukraine in what would be a major stepping up of international support.ĭefence sources said the UK could supply Volodymr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, with Challenger II – the British Army’s main battle tank – to encourage other Western allies to follow suit and stop the war.

Challenger 2 battle tank for sale