Ukraine using British tanks to invade Russia

Russian and Ukrainian sources suggest the Nato-standard main battle tank has joined the incursion force for the first time in recent days

The Ukrainian army is using British Challenger 2 tanks in its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Footage released by Russian and Ukrainian sources suggested that the Nato-standard main battle tank has joined the incursion force for the first time in recent days.
A now-deleted photograph shared by Ukraine’s 82nd Air Assault Brigade, elements of which are fighting on Russian soil, showed the British-donated war machine in the background.
Russia’s defence ministry also shared video of a Challenger 2 racing through the Russian countryside. It claimed the tank had been destroyed by a drone.
The Telegraph could not independently verify the Russian claim, but analysts said the footage had been heavily edited and it was unlikely the tank had been destroyed.
Britain handed Ukraine 14 Challenger 2 tanks last year in the first donation of Nato-standard main battle tanks.
The Ministry of Defence has never placed restrictions on the use of British weapons on Russian soil, as long as they are used against targets in accordance with international law.
However, Storm Shadow cruise missiles have been restricted to targets on Ukraine’s sovereign soil and the occupied peninsula of Crimea.
Classified US intelligence documents leaked shortly after their delivery to Ukraine said Challengers were assigned to Kyiv’s 82nd brigade.
Ukraine has captured more than 1,000 sq km of Russia’s Kursk region since its forces launched a surprise cross-border raid early last week.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British tank commander, said the introduction of the Challenger 2 was likely a sign that Kyiv was attempting to “reinforce success”.
Kyiv’s top general announced on Thursday that Ukraine was establishing its first military administration in the Kursk region.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi said that the administration was required “to maintain law and order and address the population’s urgent needs”.
Each Ukrainian region has been given its own military administration since Russia invaded in February 2022 to help coordinate civilian-military issues.
Meanwhile, Russia ordered the evacuation of some 20,000 residents from the Kursk region’s Glushkov district, which borders Ukraine, regional governor Alexei Smirnov announced.
Local officials in Kursk’s neighbouring Belgorod also announced that additional resources would be freed up for the region after a state of emergency was declared.
Western analysts have recorded a slowing in Ukraine’s operational tempo after the lightning assault captured large swathes of Russian territory.
Moscow has started digging trenches and building a network of fortifications some 30 miles north of its border with Ukraine.
The Russian resistance to the invasion, the first of its soil since the Second World War, has somewhat slowed Ukraine’s advance.
Russian sources have also contested Ukrainian claims about areas Kyiv controls.
Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces, says Ukrainian troops do not have complete control over Sudzha, a town Kyiv has claimed to have under its occupation, Russian state media reported.