UK to Deploy More Tanks to Germany amid Worries over Russian ’Activities’ on Ukraine Border

By Staff, Agencies

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced upcoming changes to the country's military, including on a planned redeployment of some of its tanks to Germany to bring the British motorized presence there to a full armored brigade for the first time in a decade.

The additional tanks will be based in the NATO Forward Holding Facility at the Sennelager Training Area in Germany. At the same time, the UK Defense Ministry does not plan to increase the number of troops deployed there.

The change is expected to allow the rapid reinforcement of NATO's eastern flank.

The UK thus effectively will roll back its 2010 decision to redeploy a portion of its armored brigade from Germany, which was partially justified by the absence of an imminent threat from Russia.

An anonymous source told The Telegraph that the move announced by Ben Wallace was prompted by Whitehall's concerns about Russia's alleged military activity on the Ukrainian border.

The source claimed that London saw them as "aggressive" and "worrying."

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed unsubstantiated media reports of a military build-up on the border with Ukraine and said it was of no one's concern how the country moves its military within its borders.

The response came amid several NATO members expressing fears that Russia might be planning to attack Ukrainian territory amid the purported military build-up.

The Kremlin, in turn, pointed out that western countries had sounded similar alarms in April 2021, when the Russian armed forces had been redeployed to the country's western fringes. Back then it turned out the move was linked to a routine military exercise.