WIREDGOV

Ukraine’s defence minister personally thanked Defence Secretary Ben Wallace for the UK’s continued military support for Ukraine, during a series of meetings held this week in Kyiv.

The UK Defence Secretary met his counterpart, Oleksii Reznikov, during a visit to Kyiv, after the UK became the first country to provide Ukraine with long-range precision strike capability this month.

The Defence Secretary’s visit came after the Prime Minister hosted President Zelenskyy at Chequers last week and again met him at the G7 in Hiroshima on Sunday.

During a bilateral meeting, the defence ministers discussed how long-range strike capabilities would further help the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to achieve victory against Russia.

Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, said:

I was pleased to visit Kyiv again to meet with my good friend Oleksii Reznikov to discuss the next stages of Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s illegal invasion.

The UK continues to offer both equipment, training and advice to Ukraine’s armed forces.

I also visited some of the military commanders who have been so bravely pushing back Russian forces.

The ministers also discussed Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO, ahead of the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius.

Earlier this month, the Defence Secretary announced to the House of Commons that the UK would donate Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine in direct response to Russia’s continued brutality, and its continued long-range missile strikes against civilian targets in Ukraine. Storm Shadow is an advanced weapon system with the capability to strike targets at a range of over 250km with precision, and will add to the list of capabilities that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are able to deploy to defend themselves against Russian military aggression in Ukraine.

The donation was the latest milestone in the UK’s continued military support for Ukraine, having previously paved the way for the supply of modern Western main battle tanks with the Prime Minister’s commitment to supply a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks.

The UK Government provided £2.3 billion of military aid to Ukraine in 2022 and the Prime Minister has committed to match this in 2023, having already supplied more than 10,000 anti-tank missiles, 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition (with 100,000 more planned for supply in 2023), more than a hundred anti-aircraft guns, self-propelled artillery, and trained more than 15,000 AFU recruits, with support from our Allies.