The United Kingdom will send 120,000 drones to Ukraine in yet the biggest military aid since the start of the full-fledged war in 2022. Deliveries of these drones have already started in April.
The package was announced by the UK Defence Ministry in its official website on Wednesday. According to the statement, the new military aid will include thousands of long-range strike drones, intelligence and reconnaissance drones, logistics drones and maritime capabilities, which are all battle-proven on Ukraine’s frontline.
“This big boost of battle-proven drones will give Ukrainian forces the capability they need to defend their people and fight back against Russian aggression,” the website quoted Defence Secretary John Healey as saying. The minister stressed that Vladimir Putin wants the international community to be preoccupied with the war in the Middle East. “With eyes on the Middle East in recent weeks, Putin wants us to be distracted, but Ukrainians continue to fight with huge courage and nothing will distract us from continuing to stand with them for as long as it takes to secure peace,” Healey said.
The latest drone initiative forms part of the UK’s broader £3 billion military assistance to Ukraine for this year, alongside additional funding from the ERA. The Defence Secretary is also set to announce that the UK plans to supply Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of artillery shells and several thousand air defence missiles over the course of the year.
This comes after a newly established, high-profile defence partnership agreed last month, under which the UK and Ukraine will collaborate to strengthen international defence capabilities in response to the growing spread of affordable, advanced military technologies, particularly drones.
The disbursement - drawn from a broader £3.36 billion loan package - is intended to fund the acquisition of critical defence assets, such as long-range strike missiles, sophisticated air defence technologies, and unmanned aerial systems.
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