Ukraine conflict: UK deploys logistics brigade headquarters to channel arms

Nearly 80 British Army logistics planners have been deployed to Germany to co-ordinate deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine.

The headquarters element of 104 Theatre Sustainment Brigade is now running the Stuttgart-based US European Command's International Donor Coordination Center (IDCC), according to a senior UK military source.

Brigadier Chris King, the brigade's commander, leads the 78-strong British Army contingent.

UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey visited Stuttgart on 14 March and posted an image online of the open plan IDCC's operations room, with 20 personnel at work and a bank of three large computer screens to display operational information.

Based in South Cerney, Gloucestershire, 104 Brigade has a NATO role supporting the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps headquarters, but a military source said the current mission was not flagged to NATO.

“This is a coalition of the willing rather than a NATO operation, even through many NATO nations are making a big contribution,” said the source. “This is a co-ordination role; we are not doing the physical delivery.”

The UK team, assisted by liaison staff from several allied nations, is organising the in-flow of equipment into Poland by air or land transportation, where it is collected by the Ukrainians who are then responsible for moving it across the border.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February, more than two dozen nations have pledged to deliver arms, ammunition, and other military equipment. A Russian cruise missile strike on the International Center for Peace and Security in Yavoriv, western Ukraine, on 13 March reportedly hit storage facilities for internationally supplied arms, but the UK military source declined to comment on any impact on the effort to support Kyiv's military forces.