UK to supply thousands of drones to Ukraine
This is said in a statement published on the UK Government's website, according to Ukrinform.
“The UK continues to do all we can to give Ukraine what it needs – upping our aid to £2.5bn this year and committing £200m to manufacture drones, making us Ukraine’s largest drone supplier. Today, we’re going even further. I’m proud to announce that the UK and Latvia will co-lead an international coalition to build Ukraine’s vital drone capabilities,” said UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
He assured that together, partners will give Ukraine “the capabilities it needs to defend itself and win this war, to ensure that Putin fails in his illegal and barbaric ambitions.”
It is noted that as part of the coalition, the UK will scale up and streamline the West’s provision of “first person view” (FPV) drones to Ukraine.
“This is the first project to be launched from the £200 million drone package announced by the Prime Minister in January this year. It will see the UK order thousands of FPV drones for Ukraine, including from UK manufacturers,” the report says.
As noted, the Defence Secretary also meets his NATO counterparts on Thursday to review “progress on support for Ukraine, NATO’s new warfighting plans, ramping up defence production capacity and preparations for the NATO Summit in Washington in July.”
In the margins of the NATO ministerial, the Defence Secretary will bring together his counterparts from 13 NATO Allies and Sweden to sign an agreement on two new multinational procurement initiatives focusing on munitions and missiles. Spearheaded by the UK, these initiatives aim to “increase defence industrial capacity across the Euro-Atlantic area, replenish stockpiles at pace and continue support to Ukraine”.
As reported, a meeting of NATO defense ministers is scheduled to take place in Brussels on February 15, during which a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council will be held. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is expected to participate in the event via teleconference.
