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According to Downing Street, Britain will send 12 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine as part of efforts to "intensify" support for Ukraine's defence against Russia.
During a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak "outlined the UK's ambition to intensify" its support for Ukraine, "including through the provision of Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems," Downing Street said.
In a Saturday post on his accepted Telegram channel, Zelensky expressed gratitude to Sunak for "decisions that will not only strengthen us on the battlefield, but also send the right signal to other partners."
The Western alliance's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine received a boost this week when, for the first time, multiple European nations responded to Zelensky's long-standing call to supply modern battle tanks to Kyiv.
France and Poland have promised to send tanks to Ukraine's military to help it defend itself against Russia. Finland is considering doing the same.
Russian infighting over who deserves the most credit for "tactical advancement" in the town of Soledar, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is a sign of Moscow's failure.
During his nightly address on Friday, Zelensky stated that there have been "324 days of full-scale war, and how everything has changed for Russia... They're already at odds over who deserves credit for some tactical progress.
"This is a clear failure signal for the enemy. And this is yet another reason for all of us to increase pressure on the occupier and inflict greater losses on the enemy," he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Friday that it had taken the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar. However, the Ukrainian military stated that the fighting was still going on.
The battle became a point of contention between the Wagner private military company, whose mercenaries did much of the frontline fighting, and the Russian Ministry of Defense, which had made competing claims about their roles in the battle public.
"The difficult battle for the Donetsk region is still ongoing," Zelensky said. "The battle for Bakhmut and Soledar, Kreminna, and other towns and villages in our country's east continues.
"Despite the fact that the enemy has concentrated its most powerful forces in this direction, our warriors - the Armed Forces of Ukraine, all defence and security forces - are defending the state," he said.
A new video from the Donetsk region's Soledar town shows a massive explosion at a building that appears to have been a Russian troop shelter.
The video shows between a dozen and twenty soldiers walking along a railroad track before turning along a street on the town's northern outskirts, which Russia claimed to have taken on Friday, though Ukraine denied this.
The explosion destroys a building with a distinctive green roof after the soldiers arrive, with debris flying upwards. CNN has georeferenced the video.
The soldier, codenamed Madiar, commands a Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance unit. He comments on the video, saying, "There are ten of them. There are ten more in this section. And they're all clearly heading in the same direction. They're getting settled. In groups of 20 or more people. In the residences. On Soledar's outskirts.
"We've been watching this place since the morning," he says. "There was some sort of activity going on there. Something was loading and unloading."
He describes the green-roofed structure as "some kind of headquarters for them."
According to Madiar, there should be at least 25 Russian soldiers present.
"What should we do?" he asks. HIMARS or MLRS?" before the explosion.
The US-supplied HIMARS artillery has proven to be an accurate and powerful weapon for Ukrainian forces.
Europe is preparing to send Western tanks to Ukraine.
On Thursday, a Ukrainian tank fires at Russian positions near Kreminna, Luhansk Oblast.
The Western alliance's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine received a boost this week when, for the first time, multiple European nations responded to President Volodymyr Zelensky's long-standing call to supply modern battle tanks to Kyiv.
France and Poland have promised to send tanks to Ukraine's military to help it defend itself against Russia. The United Kingdom and Finland are considering doing the same.
(CNN)