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Rishi Sunak will visit Kyiv and confirm that UK military funding to Ukraine will increase to £2.5bn in the next financial year, Downing Street has said.
The UK prime minister will meet Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday to sign a new bilateral agreement on security co-operation, the first step in developing a “100-year partnership” between the two nations, according to Number 10.
“I am here today with one message: the UK will also not falter,” Sunak said. “We will stand with Ukraine, in their darkest hours and in the better times to come.”
His message of reassurance and commitment of British military aid for the coming financial year, an increase of £200mn over the past two years, will seek to assuage fears in Kyiv that western support for Ukraine is waning.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East following the armed Palestinian group’s October 7 attack and the launch of air strikes by the US and UK against Houthi rebels in Yemen this week have diverted international attention away from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The UK assistance comes as the US and the EU struggle to secure support packages for Ukraine collectively worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
A US assistance package worth $61bn has been held up in Congress, with Republicans demanding that supplemental aid to Ukraine be contingent on more funding for US border security. Talks are resuming this month but are expected to be contentious.
Zelenskyy visited Washington a month ago but meetings with top Republicans including House Speaker Mike Johnson yielded no immediate results. Washington’s most recent assistance package for Kyiv was announced on December 27, and included crucial air defence munitions, artillery, and more. The Pentagon said then that it would probably be the last package until Congress passed new legislation.
Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has blocked a €50bn financial package to keep Ukraine’s government running, although there are signs a deal could be struck between Budapest and Brussels.
Amid the uncertainty of more American military aid, Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline say they have already been forced to ration artillery shells, undercutting their ability to attack and defend against Russian forces, who have recently pressed ahead with offensives in several locations along the 1,000-kilometre frontline in Ukraine’s southern and eastern regions.
Kyiv has warned that it is running dangerously low on air defence munitions at a time when the capital and cities across the country have faced some of the biggest aerial assaults since Russia began its full-scale invasion nearly two years ago.
Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, Ukraine’s air force spokesman, said this week that Kyiv had “a deficit of anti-aircraft guided missiles”.
Britain said its new support package would provide long-range missiles, air defence, artillery ammunition and maritime security.
At least £200mn will be spent on providing drones — the largest delivery of unmanned aerial vehicles to Ukraine from any nation, including thousands of surveillance, long-range strike and seaborne drones.
Most of these will be manufactured in the UK, as Britain’s Ministry of Defence works to scale up production with other international partners.
The new security agreement between London and Kyiv builds on a commitment by G7 nations last year to offer Ukraine bilateral security assurances. It will formalise existing links on intelligence sharing, cyber security, military training and industrial co-operation, with the UK vowing to offer “swift and sustained” assistance in the event of a future attack on Ukraine.
Sunak will also announce an extra £18mn in aid to Ukraine, including £8mn to shore up the country’s energy infrastructure. Additional funding will also be provided to pay for online English tuition for Ukrainians, to deepen relations between the nations in the long term.
During the one-day visit, Sunak is set to meet emergency responders first on the scene after Russian bomb attacks.
Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey said his party “fully backs” the new military funding and “vital support” for Ukraine.
