UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Ukraine on Friday morning, pledging £2.5bn in military support as well as humanitarian aid and security guarantees.
Ahead of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sunak said the UK would provide Ukraine with military aid totalling £2.5 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, an increase of £200 million over the previous two years. Rishi Sunak claimed:
I am here today with one message: the UK will also not falter. We will stand with Ukraine, in their darkest hours and in the better times to come.
£200 million of that sum will be spent on a major deal to rapidly procure and produce thousands of drones for Ukraine, including reconnaissance, strike and long-range maritime drones, according to a No 10 statement announcing Sunak’s trip to Kyiv.
It would be the largest delivery of drones to Ukraine from any country, the statement said, with most of them expected to be manufactured in the UK.
Sunak will also sign a security co-operation agreement with Zelensky on Friday, after the G7 countries agreed at last year’s NATO summit in Vilnius to provide Ukraine with bilateral security guarantees.
Sunak’s visit comes at a tense moment after Britain and the United States launched air and missile strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen to stop attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Zelensky urged Western allies to give Ukraine more support amid fears that interest in the war is waning as it drags on.
