British Defense Minister Ben Wallace arrived in Kiev on an unannounced visit, the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported .
In the capital of Ukraine, Wallace met with the head of the Ukrainian defense department, Alexei Reznikov. The ministers discussed the issues of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, as well as the supply of Western weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“We discussed Ukraine’s NATO perspective in the context of the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius and Ukraine’s weaponization priorities, especially with regard to long-range weapons such as the Storm Shadow,” Reznikov said.
In turn, Wallace stressed that “Ukraine’s allies will be with her and will help with all possible types of weapons, from anti-tank missiles to tanks, Storm Shadow and now the F-16.”
“President Putin must realize that he cannot win this illegal war that he has unleashed, no matter how many Russian soldiers he sends to their deaths,” the British defense minister said.
The British authorities have consistently supported Ukraine since the beginning of full-scale Russian aggression. In mid-May 2023, the UK government announced the transfer to Ukraine of hundreds of new attack drones with a range of more than 200 kilometers, as well as missiles for air defense systems and other unmanned aerial systems.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also announced that training for Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets will begin this summer. According to him, the adapted program provides training in piloting skills that they can apply on other types of aircraft.
In early May, the UK handed over to Ukraine several long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles with a range of more than 250 kilometers. This is the first time that Kyiv has received missiles of this range; before that, Western countries supplied weapons capable of attacking targets at a distance of up to 80 kilometers.
Source: Current Time
