The U.K. is running out of military equipment to send to Ukraine, the Telegraph reported on Oct. 2, citing information from a senior military chief.
The U.K. has given away as much as it can afford, the source told the Telegraph, adding that stocks have especially “run dry” on air defense and artillery ammunition.
While the British government “has already committed 14 Challenger 2 tanks,” the source said it was unlikely the country would be able to donate any more tanks to Kyiv.
“We’ve given away pretty much everything we can afford to give,” the military chief told the newspaper.
The U.K. therefore should be “encouraging other nations to give more money and weapons,” rather than relying on its own military stocks, the source said.
The comments came the day after Ben Wallace, the former U.K. Defense Minister, wrote an article for the Telegraph in which he revealed that before his resignation in August, he had asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to increase military support for Ukraine.
“I asked the PM to match or increase the £2.3 billion pledged to Ukraine this year, to add to the £4.6 billion we have spent already,” Wallace wrote.
Ukrainian forces “take U.K. equipment and achieve success rates far beyond expectations,” he added.
Wallace had been U.K. Defense Minister since 2019 and played a key role in Britain’s response to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
As minister, Wallace made the U.K. the first country to provide Ukraine with weapons capable of reaching targets deep into Russian-occupied territories, namely by providing Storm Shadow missiles in May 2023.
Read also: Media: UK Minister says Ukraine has practically defeated Russia’s Black Sea Fleet
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