On a surprise trip to the embattled country, Sunak said the U.K. would provide a total of £2.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine in the 2024/25 financial year, an increase of £200 million on the previous two years.
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Neil Melvin, director of international security at London-based defense think tank RUSI, said the U.K. move was significant in that the country is now the first to “formalize and conclude” a long-term, one-to-one security promise for Ukraine.
“It's a 10-year framework, which is designed to give a kind of stability and predictability on security and defense support for Ukraine,” he said. That would, he argued, allow Ukraine “to be clear with Russia that it enjoys long-term support from the Euro-Atlantic community.” Sunak’s move Friday is, he said, an attempt to “keep the momentum going” and put pressure on the rest of Europe to follow suit.
But Melvin stressed that there are clear limits to what British promises can achieve while the United States Congress continues to hold out on extra cash for Ukraine's fight-back.
“The real problem at the moment is that there is no substitute for U.S. support," Melvin warned. "So whatever the U.K. is able to give, if this money doesn't come through Congress, then Ukrainians are really going to be in great difficulty because the Europeans are just not in a position to fill that gap.”
'New level'
Ukraine, which has long been pushing for the bigger security guarantee of NATO membership, nevertheless welcomed the British move Friday.
- “Now the process of concluding bilateral agreements on providing security guarantees to Ukraine should be much more dynamic,” he said.
- Zhovkva added: “This is a new reference point and a new level of strategic partnership — on the way to a century-long partnership … Ukraine no longer has to ask for help and weapons, but will receive them automatically, both in the case of a new aggression and in the case of an aggravation of the current one.”
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