Britain on Thursday pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in air defenses for Ukraine to help stave off Russian attacks on the country’s power and heating systems.
The British defense ministry said some $200 million would go to a NATO scheme backed by US President Donald Trump to buy American weaponry for Kyiv.
London will also send Ukraine 1,000 British-made lightweight missiles worth more than $500 million to Kyiv.
British defense minister John Healey said Ukraine’s allies “are more committed than ever to supporting Ukraine” as Russia’s war nears the start of its fifth year.
“I’ll be confirming that Britain is providing an extra half a billion pounds in urgent air defence to Ukraine. This is Britain being a force for good in the world, building a new deal for European security within NATO,” he told reporters.
“I’m proud of the UK’s armed forces, UK’s leadership, of the UK’s commitment to our allies. We will back you, we will defend you, we will fight with you in this new era of threat and hard power,” Healey added.
The announcement came as NATO defense ministers met in Brussels to discuss ramping up support to Ukraine.
Ferocious Russian bombardments on the war-torn country’s energy grid have seen heating and power cuts for swathes of the country during freezing winter conditions.
“It’s just terrorism against the civilian population of Ukraine,” said German defense minister Boris Pistorius.
“So it is necessary to ramp up the support for Ukraine in terms of self-defense.”