UK announces $580 million military aid package for Ukraine
Ukraine will receive £450 million ($580 million) in new military aid, the British government announced on April 11.
Of this, Britain will contribute £350 million from the £4.5 billion military aid package it has pledged to Ukraine this year; the rest will come from Norway's contribution, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
The funding was announced as British Defence Secretary John Healey chaired a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels with his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, which includes NATO countries and others supporting Ukraine.
This assistance will be used to repair and maintain vehicles and equipment, as well as provide radar systems, anti-tank mines and hundreds of thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles.
“The work of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group is critical to putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position and putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end this brutal war,” Mr Healey said at the meeting. “We cannot trade peace for forgetting the war, which is why today’s major package will strengthen Ukraine on the frontline.”
A day earlier, Mr Healey chaired a meeting of defence ministers from the “Ready to Act” coalition – a peacekeeping initiative led by Britain and France in the event of a peace deal being reached in the Russia–Ukraine conflict.
