MELITOPOL, April 6. /TASS/. Challenger 2 tanks are arriving in the Zaporozhye area and Russian forces are prepared to fight them as soon as the Ukrainian military receives the British armor, Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We Are Together with Russia public movement, told TASS on Thursday.
"We expect Challenger tanks in the Zaporozhye direction and I can further say that they are already there. Of course, the Ukrainian military will use them upon its offensive. The [Russian] army is ready for that and knows how to torch them. Earlier, I posted photos of these tanks [on Ukrainian territory] without reactive armor. Now reactive armor is already mounted on them," Rogov said.
Relative calm can be seen along the engagement line now, the regional official said.
"Artillery duels are underway along with attempts to probe the frontline, i.e. where we return fire and how quickly we do it. As for the enemy’s intensified activity, it is absent so far. But if we do not talk about reconnaissance by fire, this intensification will begin at the last moment upon a large-scale offensive and then both armor and infantry, all the forces will be thrown into the attack to the maximum extent. This is the last hope for [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky who is coerced into the offensive both by the United States and European countries," Rogov stressed.
The regional official told TASS on April 4 that the Ukrainian army might launch active operations in the coming days through reconnaissance by fire or the attempts to advance along the engagement line in the Zaporozhye Region, in the area of the city of Orekhov where personnel and military hardware kept arriving. In his estimate, in case of an offensive, Ukrainian troops would try to avoid urban battles due to a shortage of personnel and would attempt to break through to the Sea of Azov east of Mariupol to cut off the land corridor to Crimea.
The regional official told TASS on March 27 that the Ukrainian military had amassed about 75,000 troops in the Zaporozhye area already after its March 23 failed offensive foiled by Russian forces who destroyed some 400 militants.