The UK has announced a military loan of £2.26 billion to Ukraine to support the country in its ongoing fight against Russia.

The loan, part of the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Loans to Ukraine initiative, contributes to the $50 billion fund aimed at providing military, budgetary, and reconstruction support to Ukraine.

This loan, along with contributions from other G7 members, will be repaid using the profits from immobilised Russian sovereign assets.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who made the announcement alongside Defence Secretary John Healey, visited Ukrainian personnel currently being trained in the UK under Operation INTERFLEX, a training programme that has trained more than 45,000 Ukrainian personnel since its inception and has been extended until the end of 2025. Reeves expressed the UK’s unwavering support for Ukraine, stating, “Our support for Ukraine and her men and women in their fight for freedom from Putin’s aggression is unwavering and will remain so for as long as it takes.”

According to the announcement:

“The $50 billion G7 ERA scheme was first announced at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Apulia, Italy, in June this year. Russia’s obligation under international law to pay for the damage it has caused to Ukraine is clear and this G7 agreement is an important step to ensuring this happens. Today the UK has announced its contribution to the scheme and will introduce domestic legislation in the coming weeks to enable the transfer of the new funds to Ukraine as quickly as possible. The loan is on top of the £12.8 billion already committed in military, economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine.

The funding comes alongside the UK and international partners introducing the largest and most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy. Without this, Russia would have over $400 billion more for its war machine – enough to fund its illegal invasion for a further four years. The war is having an economic and human cost for Russia; it is soaking up 40% of Russia’s annual budget and last month the country suffered its highest rate of daily casualties since the war began.”

The loan will directly fund Ukraine’s military expenditure, enabling investments in critical equipment such as air defence systems, artillery, and broader military support, which are essential in Ukraine’s efforts to resist Russia’s ongoing invasion. The funding comes in addition to the UK’s existing annual £3 billion military aid, which the Prime Minister reaffirmed as part of the country’s long-term commitment to Ukraine.

The loan announcement comes on the heels of continued international sanctions imposed on Russia. The UK and its partners have imposed the largest package of sanctions ever levied on a major economy. Without these sanctions, Russia would have had over $400 billion more to fuel its military operations. According to the press release, Russia’s illegal war is consuming nearly 40% of its annual budget, and recent months have seen record-high casualty rates for Russian forces since the conflict began.

This announcement is a prelude to the Chancellor’s participation in the upcoming International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in Washington D.C., where the UK will emphasise its continued commitment to supporting Ukraine and confronting global aggressors like Russia.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss Ukraine’s path to victory in the ongoing conflict.

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

9 COMMENTS

  1. If our support is unwavering, let UKR strike at any valid targets inside Russia with any kit we supplied. If UKR asks for help, give it. Stop being brow beaten & bullied by Putins lies & threats. Prepare for the event(Goid forbis=d) that Trumop gets a nither crack at POTUS, so that the rest of UKR’s friends can step upo & compensate if the USA withdraws(& probably slides into civil war).
    I wonder what Old Ronnie Reagan would’ve thought of a pro-Russian poodle Trump presidency?

    • Let’s all hope USA does not slide into Civil war otherwise that will be the very moment Russia, China, Iran and North Korea turn the whole world order on its head. We live in very dangerous times. An isolationist Trump presidency could potentially be very very dangerous for Europe and the whole world.

      • Startling fact. 48% of all American’s believe their will be a civil war in America within the next 5-10 years. Considering how heavily armed some American’s are as well as the state of their armed forces…that is a very worrying statistic.

        • people have always said that. everytime theres a presidential election there will be talk of how it will be the last one, how politician X is basically hitler… i remember when clinton was running there was talk of him rounding up gun owners and sending them to fema concentration camps lol. the left thought trump was going to genocide leftists in 2016- its all hyperbole from typical scumbag politicians trying to scare the lower IQ segment into voting for them. its been this way for as long as i can remember. the US isn’t anywhere close to a civil war outside of twitter.

    • reagan must be rolling over in his grave. had the US permanently deployed a fighter squadron and air defense battery or two to ukraine after 2014 this war would have been avoided. but no one has the guts to do that anymore because the useful idiots on the other side of the aisle would say they were trying to start ww3 or ‘this will cost $50 million a year, we’re being bankrupted!’.

      the same can be said for taiwan. china will be exponentially less likely to invade if the US had a few units deployed there which would mean china HAS to preemptively attack the US instead of hedging their bets that if they leave the US alone they won’t get involved- which they no doubt believe when they see how divided the US is. US deployments on the korean peninsula while costly- have prevented a war which would cost trillions and untold thousands of people… and now trump is saying the US should only keep troops there if korea pays 10 billion a year… people just are not thinking. the west needs a leader like reagan who can make the argument of ‘peace through strength’

      keeping the peace is expensive, but war ALWAYS makes that look like pocket change. russian psyops online have completely subverted a large section of the right and i’m ashamed to say i fell for it in 2016 and had to de-program myself once i realized what was going on. so many peoples minds are so broke now that when they have an insane take (the CIA started the war, or biolabs)- when they exposed to proof they are wrong they double down and say ‘we’re getting flack so it means we’re over the target!!’ i.e. if someone- especially a news org or politician- tells them they’re wrong they say that is proof they are right since ‘they’ are trying so hard to disprove their narrative. i don’t know how to fix this but something must be done or russia/china will completely control the west via a roomful of twitter trolls controlling millions of useful idiots- if its not too late.

  2. Good- hit Putin and his oligarchs were it hurts, in their wallets. I’d like to see the UK government going further and just reallocate all confiscated and then liquidised resources to Ukraine forthwith.

    • I think there is somewhere near £30 billion in accounts frozen by the UK government that should be given to Ukraine, the USA is meanwhile sitting on approx £150 billion in funds. Someone correct me if I am wrong, that information was from an old 2022 assessment by the financial times.

  3. i haven’t had my coffee yet so maybe i’m missing something, but if its funded by russian assets, why is it a loan? they should be given all russian assets the west can get their hands on. if russia can illegally seize western assets that were in russia (oil refinement equipment, boeing/airbus aircraft etc) i’d love to see the west seizing anything owned by russians abroad. mercedes, condos, private jets, yachts- and giving the money directly to ukraine.

    but the way this is worded i won’t be surprised to see some slack-jawed ‘international court’ judge one day forcing ukraine to pay this back directly to russia with interest. the west needs to grow a pair ffs.

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