KYIV - Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged the UK will provide a major new package of air defence equipment worth £50 million (S$81.8 million) to help protect Ukrainians from an intense barrage of Russian strikes on critical infrastructure.
The UK government announced the plan after a previously announced visit to Kyiv by Mr Sunak on Saturday, his first since taking office in October.
“While Ukraine’s armed forces succeed in pushing back Russian forces on the ground, civilians are being brutally bombarded from the air,” Mr Sunak said after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We are today providing new air defence, including anti-aircraft guns, radar and anti-drone equipment, and stepping up humanitarian support for the cold, hard winter ahead.”
The package comprises 125 anti-aircraft guns and technology to counter Iranian-supplied drones, including dozens of radars and anti-drone electronic warfare capability, the UK said.
“With friends like you by our side, we are confident in our victory. Both of our nations know what it means to stand up for freedom,” Mr Zelensky said on Twitter.
Ukraine’s leader told Mr Sunak that as of now, almost 50 per cent of the nation’s energy infrastructure has been damaged by relentless Russian missile and drone attacks, especially over the past six weeks.
Top Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called on allies to help the nation step up its air defences.
“This Russian terror is not just another enemy’s cruelty toward Ukrainians. It is a display of a cynical Russian anti-European policy, anti-human policy,” Mr Zelensky said.
“We will stand with you until Ukraine has won the peace and security it needs and deserves, and then we will stand with you as you rebuild your great country,” Mr Sunak said. “This year alone we have provided £2.3 billion pounds of military support and we will do the same again next year.”
Mr Sunak’s visit followed high-profile trips to Kyiv by former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, one of the first leaders to travel to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in February.
After Ukraine’s counteroffensive forced Russian troops to retreat, Kremlin forces have engaged in a massive missile and drone campaign that’s pummelled power stations, grid networks and other civilian facilities. Russia has also hit gas extraction facilities, Ukrainian officials said.
Air attacks on Tuesday were the most widespread to date, and the onslaught has continued in the country’s east and south, including Odesa on the Black Sea.
More than 10 million Ukrainians – about a quarter of the pre-war population – are without electricity, Mr Zelensky said in his overnight address on Thursday, as the season’s first snow fell on Kyiv.
Multiple emergency blackouts this week hit the capital with the heaviest power shortages since the war started, local grid company Yasno said. Temperatures in Kyiv are expected to plunge to minus 6 deg C on Sunday. BLOOMBERG
