‘The Tallinn Pledge’: Britain and eight EU countries promise tanks, heavy artillery to Ukraine

This is said in their joint statement that was published on the website of the UK Government, Ukrinform reports.

“We the Defence Ministers of Estonia, the United Kingdom, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania; and the representatives of Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Slovakia met today, 19 January, to reaffirm our continued determination and resolve to supporting Ukraine in their heroic resistance against the illegal and unprovoked Russian aggression. We condemn Russia’s attacks designed to terrorise Ukraine’s people, including intentional attacks against the civilian population and civilian infrastructure which may constitute war crimes,” the document says.

They stated that Russia's actions are aimed at violating Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and its illegal attempts to annex the territories of Ukraine. At the same time, they reaffirmed their readiness to continue supplying Ukraine with weapons and military equipment not only in order to resist Russian aggression, but also to clear the entire territory of the country from Russian invaders.

“The new level of required combat power is only achieved by combinations of main battle tank squadrons, beneath air and missile defence, operating alongside divisional artillery groups, and further deep precision fires enabling targeting of Russian logistics and command nodes in occupied territory,” the document says.

In the context, the participants in the meeting also approved a joint commitment to collectively pursuing delivery of an unprecedented set of donations including main battle tanks, heavy artillery, air defence, ammunition, and infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine’s defence.

“This substantial assistance to Ukraine comes from our own national stocks, and resources illustrating the mutual understanding of the severity of the situation and our commitment to urgently increase and accelerate support for Ukraine. Having made this “Tallinn Pledge”, we shall head to the Ukraine Defence Group meeting in Ramstein tomorrow 20 January and urge other Allies and partners to follow suit and contribute their own planned packages of support as soon as possible to ensure a Ukrainian battlefield victory in 2023,” the document says.

The document partially indicates the amount of defense aid to Ukraine from each signatory country, in particular, the amount of financial contributions for defense needs, some names of weapons and equipment, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, helicopters, air defense equipment, UAVs, small arms, etc

In particular, Poland confirmed that it is ready to donate a company of Leopard 2 tanks with ammunition, pending this, a wider coalition of Leopard 2 tanks donors will be established. The United Kingdom’s accelerated package includes a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks with armoured recovery and repair vehicles.

As reported, another meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group will be held at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Friday.

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