Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba and Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov call on other states to join the creation of an international tank coalition in support of Ukraine.
This is stated in their joint statement regarding the urgency of strengthening Ukraine's defense capabilities, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
The statement added that Ukraine welcomes the bold and very timely decision of Great Britain to transfer the first squadron of Challenger 2 tanks, but this is not enough to achieve operational goals.
"Therefore, we appeal to the countries having Leopard 2 tanks in service, in particular Greece, Denmark, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, Finland, and Sweden. We guarantee that we will use these weapons responsibly and exclusively for the protection of the territorial integrity of Ukraine within the internationally recognized borders. We appeal to all these and other states that have the appropriate capabilities to join the initiative of creating an international tank coalition in support of Ukraine and make their practical contributions to this initiative," the statement reads.
The ministers note that Russia has not changed its goals regarding Ukraine, which consist in the destruction of one of the largest states in Europe and the destruction of the 45 million Ukrainian people.
The statement emphasizes that with its heroic resistance and successful liberation operations, Ukraine convincingly proved its ability to stop the aggressor state and the stronger Ukraine's defense capabilities become, the sooner Russia will be convinced of the futility of its attempts to subjugate Ukraine and the sooner the brutal war in the heart of Europe will be put to an end.
It is noted that Ukraine is grateful to more than fifty partner states for their practical military assistance, but Russia still maintains a significant advantage in the number of troops, weapons and military equipment.
"Russian troops continue offensive operations in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin is determined to further intensify hostilities. Russia's attempt to take revenge for its failures in the war against Ukraine, including the threat of a new full-scale offensive by Russian forces, is very real," the statement said.
That is why Ukraine appeals to all partner states that have already provided military assistance or are planning to provide it, with a call to significantly increase their practical contribution to strengthening Ukraine's ability to defend itself, to bring this assistance to a qualitatively new level.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on January 11, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Poland has decided to transfer a company of Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of the international coalition. Poland expects that Western countries will transfer up to 100 modern tanks to Ukraine.
Kuleba said that Poland, Finland and three other countries are ready to provide Ukraine with German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks, but they are waiting for Germany's consent.
Britain transfers 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.
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