Britain's Fulsome Embrace of Ukraine's Sovereign Resistance Against Russia

"[The agreement] commits the U.K. to consult with Ukraine in the event it is ever attacked by Russia again and to provide 'swift and sustained' assistance for their defence."

"[The agreement is intended] to be the first step in developing an unshakable hundred-year partnership between Ukraine and the United Kingdom."

"[London would also] provide intelligence sharing, cybersecurity, medical and military training, and defence industrial cooperation."

"The United Kingdom is the first country [in the Group of Seven] to deliver a final agreement [among those pledging to do so in the July NATO summit]."

"[Much of the additional $250 million pledge would be spent] on a major push to rapidly procure and produce thousands of military drones for Ukraine, including surveillance, long-range strike and sea drones."

This will be the largest delivery of drones to Ukraine from any nation."

Bilateral British/Ukraine Agreement on Security Cooperation 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) at a signing ceremony during a visit to the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, to announce a major new package of £2.5 billion in military aid to the country over the coming year, January 12, 2024. Stefan Rousseau/Pool via REUTERS

 

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Kyiv bringing with him good cheer and good news for embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the effect that the United Kingdom is prepared to provide Ukraine with over $3 billion in military aid over and above what it has supplied to date. Documents were signed establishing bilateral security guarantees locking London and Kyiv in a close embrace through a formal alliance on security and intelligence-sharing.

Called the U.K.-Ukraine Agreement on Security Cooperation, this package will hearten President Zelenskyy, even as it delights the British Prime Minister to announce its generous and badly needed support for Ukraine enmeshed in an armed conflict with a viciously obdurate Kremlin, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has quashed his home critics, repeating the dire need for Moscow to deter Ukraine from destabilizing Russia by imposing its fascist neo-Nazi agenda on poor helpless Russia.

 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a visit to the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, to announce a major new package of military aid to the country over the coming year, January 12, 2024. Stefan Rousseau/Pool via REUTERS

 

Already one of Ukraine's most stalwart supporters, this visit by the British Prime Minister along with the badly needed assistance, made for an uplifting message for Kyiv at the very time that Russia has increased its aerial bombardment campaign. Crucially, the proposed aid package of over $60 billion that US. President Joe Biden anticipates gifting Ukraine is stalled, blocked in Congress. The U.K.'s commitment is doubly appreciated in the face of Russia's ongoing violence against Ukraine.

Kyiv has been anxious that support against Russia not wane from its Western supporters; a strong unified pledge for ongoing support was the message he brought with him on a world tour recently, seeking to persuade his Western backers to ratify unremitting security guarantees to highlight for Russia that support remains unshakeable for Ukraine at a time when questions have arisen over the commitment by the West to continue aiding Ukraine in its existential determination to defend itself from tyranny's re-conquest.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with President Volodymyr Zelensky (centre right) arrive for a press conference during a visit to the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, to announce a major new package of ?2.5 billion in military aid to the country over the coming year, January 12, 2024. Stefan Rousseau/Pool via REUTERS