London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan has dealt a humiliating blow to his Ukrainian counterpart, Vitali Klitschko, according to a UK media report.
Amid the Kiev regime’s scramble to make up for vast vehicle losses, the mayor of Kiev requested that London send cars otherwise destined for the scrapheap under the ULEZ, but was turned down. London’s mayor apparently cited a legal quirk when saying he would not let the vehicles - reportedly pick-up trucks and 4x4s - be sent to the Ukraine conflict zone, as per a letter cited by The Telegraph.
ULEZ stands for Ultra Low Emissions Zone. Such areas in major UK cities, like London, are designed to reduce the number of high-emission cars travelling within them. In the UK capital, ULEZ began to be expanded as of August 2023.
Vitali Klitschko apparently wrote to Khan in September, asking that such scrapped vehicles be donated to Kiev. According to Klitschko, such an offering would have “enormous potential” and be used in a “variety of life-saving and transport roles.” However, on December 12, Sadiq Khan purportedly sent a reply to Kiev’s mayor, telling him that the proposal did not comply with a “legal threshold” that requires the ULEZ scrappage scheme to benefit London's residents from an “economic, social and environmental perspective.”
As to the amount of cars that are estimated to be ULEZ non-compliant in Greater London, in March, RAC research suggested it was close to 700,000.
According to the UK outlet, for months now, donated 4x4s and other larger vehicles have been making their way to Ukraine with the help of "volunteers" from organizations such as Car for Ukraine. After the vehicles get there, they are given a coat of camouflage paint, and fitted with everything from machine-guns to rocket launchers.
It should be noted that even Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has finally tacitly admitted that Kiev’s counteroffensive has failed. Last week, the politician admitted to US media that Ukraine was in a “new phase” of the conflict, while also complaining about the West's failure to provide all the arms he wanted for Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive.
“We wanted faster results. From that perspective, unfortunately, we did not achieve the desired results. And this is a fact,” Zelensky said
Amid human and equipment losses, Ukraine has been forced to give its NATO-gifted armor a new role, using at least some of its German-made Leopard-series main battle tanks as makeshift artillery. Ukraine's military has begun digging the heavy armor deep into the ground in a "hull-down" position and deploying it to target Russian infantry and infrastructure.
The Kiev regime’s military has also been relying on an improvised infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) whose pace is such that a soldier could easily walk as fast, as per a US report. What they reportedly did was to pull a vintage 13-ton MT-LB armored tractor, dating back to the 1970s, out of long-term storage. This was reportedly provided with extra armor and a remotely controlled weapons station (RWS). The result was the BMP-1LB, used as a “surrogate” IFV.