Ukrainian MP blames looming Russian offensive on Western countries taking months to send tanks: ‘People will die because of this’

• Russia's upcoming offensive will take advantage of delays in sending Ukraine tanks, an MP told Insider.
• Inna Sovsun, a Ukrainian lawmaker, said delays from Western allies will cost lives in Ukraine.

Russia's looming offensive in Ukraine is set to take advantage of a delay from the West in sending tanks to Ukraine, a Ukrainian lawmaker told Insider.

Inna Sovsun, a liberal opposition MP, said the time the US and Germany took to decide whether to send tanks gave Russia a window of opportunity to attack, before Ukraine's troops were better prepared.

"They are doing that because they know that in three months we are going to have soldiers who are training to use Leopards and other tanks," she said.

The impact of the delay in sending the advanced weaponry will be that more Ukrainians will die, she added. "We might lose some of our towns and villages and we will definitely lose some of the people."

A long decision on tanks

Ukrainian officials have been warning for months that Russia is poised to launch a large-scale attack, perhaps as soon as this month. One Ukrainian military advisor told the Financial Times on Sunday that Ukrainian intelligence believes Russia could launch its attack within 10 days.

Ukraine first started asking for tanks at the start of Russia's invasion, but those requests became increasingly frequent and public towards the end of 2022.

The US and Germany were slow to act, with their indecision also delaying other countries, which said they wanted to send tanks but had to hold off because they needed permission to re-export German-made vehicles. Germany declined to act without the US also committing to doing so.

Both countries finally agreed to send tanks at the end of January, paving the way for other nations to announce their commitments.

Sovsun told Insider that it was hard to watch countries debate sending the needed weaponry, and that she couldn't understand how the decision to send tanks was not made sooner.

"It became emotionally difficult because we are losing hundreds of people there daily sometimes. Lives could have been saved if that weapon were provided," she said.

Sovsun said her own partner is fighting on the front lines, "risking his life every day."

"I wake up every day and I double check if he is alive, and I am worried about him like hell every single day, every second."

Ukraine has, until now, had to rely on Soviet-era tanks, and the country says more advanced tanks are necessary to push back any Russian offensive.

Sovsun added that having the tanks earlier would also have helped Ukraine in recent battles, where both sides reached a bloody deadlock, including the months-long, close-quarters battle for the city of Bakhmut.

"We are in very close combat. And close combat is exactly what tanks are made for. That is why they were created, for trench warfare," she said.

Adding to the frustration, Germany's defense minister said in late January that the Leopard 2 tanks will only be operational in Ukraine in about three months.

Commenting on this, Sovsun said simply that people in Ukraine were dying every day because "decisions to give us tanks were not taken before."