Tanks transferred by Britain to Ukraine will appear on the front lines before the summer, the country's defense minister Ben Wallace said on Monday, without giving an exact timeline, Reuters reported.

Asked in Parliament when the 14 Challenger tanks Britain has agreed to supply will be deployed to the battlefield, Wallace said: It will be before the summer: or in May, probably closer to Easter.

He added that for security reasons he could not give a timetable for training Ukrainian troops in the use of the tanks, noting that training would begin with operating individual vehicles and then move on to combat training in formation.

Last week, Britain said its plan is to have the tanks in Ukraine by the end of March.