The Czech Republic has reportedly become the first NATO member state to send tanks to Ukraine in an apparent escalation between the West and Russia.
The Czech Republic, popularly known as Czechia, is believed to have supplied Soviet-era tanks and other infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s repeated demands for heavy equipment.
Several BVP-1 infantry combat vehicles, howitzer artillery pieces, and more than a dozen T-72 tanks were put on a train destined for Slovakia Wednesday, according to footage carried by Czech Television.
So far, NATO leaders have provided Ukraine with anti-tank and anti-ship missiles, as well as small guns and protective equipment, but no heavy armour or fighter jets. The decision by Prague to supply tanks to Kyiv will increase pressure on NATO partners to do the same.
It comes as Russian artillery continued to shell the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Kharkiv today, as the West planned further sanctions on Moscow in response to civilian murders described as war crimes by Kyiv and its allies.
Minister of Defense Jana Ernochová deserves high recognition; this is exactly what the Ukraine’s hard-to-fight army requires right now.” Benešík wrote on social media.
According to a Financial report, the most recent claimed tank shipments from Czechia were contributions rather than purchases, and the Eastern European country has been providing tanks to Ukraine for several weeks.
While other major powers, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have sent arms to Ukraine, they have not gone so far as to send heavy equipment such as tanks, suggesting that the move from the Czech Republic — a NATO member — could be interpreted as an escalation in the West-Russia proxy war.
Other NATO members have generally sent defensive weapons such as anti-tank and anti-air missiles.
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