Anti-tank weapons to Ukraine

UK sending anti-tank weapons to Ukraine

Decision was taken because of ‘the increasingly threatening behavior from Russia.’

BY PAUL DALLISON

The U.K. is supplying Ukraine with anti-tank weapons, the British defense secretary said Monday.

“We have taken the decision to supply Ukraine with light anti-armor defensive weapon systems,” Ben Wallace told the House of Commons, adding that the first of these systems was delivered on Monday. “They are not strategic weapons and pose no threat to Russia. They are to use in self-defense.”

Wallace said the decision to send the weapons was in response to “the increasingly threatening behavior from Russia.”

He said “a small number” of British troops would help train Ukrainian forces to use the weaponry.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov thanked his British counterpart on Twitter, saying that Kyiv “highly appreciates” the British gesture.

Russia has sent some 100,000 troops to its border with Ukraine, and demanded that the country never become a member of NATO.

Last week, after three days of diplomatic meetings, Western and Russian diplomats said they remained deeply divided over conflicting security interests, and they warned of an ongoing risk of military conflict.