British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged the largest military aid package for Ukraine since the beginning of the war with Russia, including thousands of deadly drones.
Sunak made the pledge during a visit to Ukraine on Friday.
The funding package for 2024 is £200 million higher than the £2.3 billion pledged per year in both 2022 and 2023.
It will ensure the “largest ever commitment of drones”, Sunak’s office said in a statement.
At least £200 million of the latest military package is to be spent on “a major push to rapidly procure and produce thousands of military drones for Ukraine, including surveillance, long-range strike and sea drones”.
In a statement, the British government explained that the G7 nations agreed to provide Ukraine with bilateral security assurances at the NATO Summit in Vilnius last year, and the UK is the first country to deliver a final agreement.
“The totemic agreement is intended to be the first step in developing an unshakeable hundred-year partnership between Ukraine and the United Kingdom.”
Sunak also said the aid currently in place was due to run through to the “early part of this year.”
During his visit, Sunak and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a 10-year agreement on military cooperation.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov also said that “£200 million from this package will be allocated for the production of combat drones for Ukraine, in particular reconnaissance, long-range, and maritime drones.”
“This will be the largest drone delivery to Ukraine among all countries,” he added In a Facebook post on Friday, .
UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps also revealed two weeks ago that London was sending hundreds of missiles to Kiev in an attempt to boost its air power against Russia.
“The UK is moving rapidly to bolster Ukraine’s air defense, in the wake of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s murderous air strikes. Hundreds of British-made air-defense missiles are being sent to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself from Putin’s barbaric bombardment,” he said.
In a separate visit to Kiev in November, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron reiterated his country’s support for Ukraine.
Cameron’s decision came after Zelensky claimed that Western support for his country had dropped since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7th.
“We will continue to give you the moral support, diplomatic support, the economic support, but above all, the military support, that you need not just this year, and next year, but for however long it takes,” Cameron said during a meeting with Zelensky.
Since the onset of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, the UK has supplied Kiev with various weapons, including the NLAW anti-tank missile launcher and Brimstone 2 missiles.
Britain also became the first Western country to provide Ukrainian forces with a long-range cruise missile named the Storm Shadow. The Storm Shadow is a turbojet-powered missile that cruises at Mach 0.8 to a max range of 560 kilometers.
Furthermore, over 20,000 recruits from the Ukrainian armed forces received training in the UK since the beginning of 2022 under the British-led Operation Interflex.
The US has also led a Western coalition sending tens of billions of dollars in weaponry and munitions to Kiev.
Moscow has repeatedly warned Western leaders against the continued supply of weapons and munitions to Ukraine, pointing out that such measures will not stop Russian troops from pursuing the country’s objectives and that arming Kiev would only prolong the war.
