Exercises With British Anti-tank Launchers, Ukrainian Military: It Will Be Easier To Fight The Russian Federation

Ukrainian military illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/staff Sgt. Adriana Diaz-Brown)

JAKARTA - Ukrainian troops began practicing firing anti-tank launchers sent by Britain in the dead of winter, as part of Western efforts to help Ukraine defend against a Russian invasion.

Russia has forced the West into talks about Moscow's demands for new security guarantees in Europe, amassing more than 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that wants to join NATO.

Britain said earlier this month it would supply Ukraine with light anti-armor defense weapons systems and personnel to provide training. They are not strategic and are meant to be used in self-defense, he said.

"It is enough to fire one round to destroy the enemy vehicle", said soldier Zinovy ​​Luzhansky during a drill at a windy military training ground in western Ukraine, quoting Reuters on January 29.

"It will be easier to fight against the Russian Federation because this weapon can easily destroy any kind of enemy armored military equipment", he continued.

While Britain and the United States have stepped up arms shipments to Ukraine this month, they have also angered Kiev by recalling their diplomats.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday did not rule out a full-blown war with Russia, but accused Washington and the media of stoking panic that weighs on the economy while "there are no tanks on the streets".

He spoke after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States and NATO had not discussed the Kremlin's key security demands in the East-West standoff over Ukraine, but Moscow was ready to continue talking.

To note, Russia annexed Crimea from Kiev in 2014 and later backed rebels battling government forces in eastern Ukraine, an unresolved conflict that has killed 15,000 people to date.