Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on leaders in the west to “follow the example of the United Kingdom” when Prime Minister Boris Johnson conducted a surprise visit to the capital of Ukraine at the weekend.

The Prime Minister met the Ukrainian President on Saturday in a surprise visit to Kyiv.

“We have to exert pressure in the form of sanctions, and I’m grateful to the United Kingdom that continues and intensifies the sanctions and also provides significant support to Ukraine by reinforcing our defence capacities,” Zelensky said at a news conference.

Later Zelensky also expressed gratitude toward Johnson for the “direct, very clear and specific position of your wonderful and powerful country,” thanking him for visiting and calling the United Kingdom “our most sincere friend.”

“You came here, and we are especially grateful that this happened — this is a true reflection of the decisive and significant support to Ukraine from the United Kingdom, and we always are grateful for that, we shall always remember that,” Zelensky said.

Johnson also said that the West will supply Ukraine with the equipment it needs to ensure it can never again be invaded by Russia after holding unannounced talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

What has the UK done for Ukraine?

The following is an open-source list of aid measures.

Military Aid

  • Trained 22,000 Ukrainian troops since 2015 as part of Operation Orbital.
  • Sale of two Sandown-class minehunters.
  • £1.7bn agreement to support the acquisition of eight missile craft and one frigate.
  • Delivered “thousands” of NLAW and Javelin anti-armour weapons. Stated to be over 4,000 as of 16 March 2022.
  • £25 million in financial backing for the Ukrainian military.
  • Unspecified further military aid, on 28 February 2022.
  • Unspecified number of Javelin anti-tank missiles, on 10 March 2022.
  • The UK announced a further 6,000 defensive missiles will be sent to Ukraine, on 24 March 2022.
  • Starstreak man-portable air-defence systems.
  • UK announced the supply of an unspecified amount of “armoured vehicles and long-range artillery” to Ukraine, on 31 March 2022, on 9 April a figure of 120 armoured vehicles was given along with an unspecified number of anti-ship missiles.
  • British Army donates 84,000 helmets to Ukraine.
  • UK announced an additional £100 million in military aid, on 8 April. This includes further Starstreak missiles, 800 NLAW, Javelin anti-tank missiles & precision loitering munitions. Further Military helmets, night-vision equipment and body armour will be provided on top of 200,000 pieces of non-lethal military equipment supplied so far.
  • Deployment of RC-135W Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft to provide information on size and position of Russian forces.
  • ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance) support, both standalone and in partnership with the United States.

Financial Aid

  • 23 February pledged £3.5bn in UK export financing, underwrote $500m in MLDB borrowing and provided a £100m loan via the World Bank for economic development.
  • 23 March UK donated $100m directly to the Ukrainian government budget to mitigate financial pressures created by Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion.
  • 9 April UK increased its World Bank loan guarantees to £730m ($1bn).

Humanitarian Aid

  • £100 million of humanitarian aid announced on 23 February 2022.
  • £40 million additional humanitarian aid announced on 27 February 2022.
  • Additional £80 million in aid to help Ukraine deal with humanitarian crisis on 1 March 2022.
  • £4 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine on 28 February 2022.
  • £4 million combined package of financial and humanitarian aid, announced on 1 March 2022.
  • UK announced “supplies of rations, medical equipment and other non-lethal military aid will also be increased” on 10 March 2022.
  • On 14 March 2022, the UK government announced plans to provide vital energy support to Ukraine through the Ukraine Electricity Network Support Taskforce. The UK donated more than 500 mobile generators.
  • £2 million in vital food supplies for areas of Ukraine encircled by Russian forces.
  • UK announced the donation of a “fleet of ambulances” to Ukraine, on 6 April 2022.
  • UK announced the amount it had donated through multilateral donor conferences for humanitarian aid totaled £394m so far on 9 April.
George Allison
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
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206 COMMENTS

  1. I’m not faulting Boris in any way for giving all this aid. I’m honestly wondering, though, how the hell are we managing to give all this away with no increase in defense spending ?

    • As far as I’m aware, all the equipment we’ve given away (bar Javelin) is made in the U.K.. That makes it reasonably cheap to replace them, given the money will stay in the economy

          • Indeed.

            The world can see that UK are leaders in MANPAD tech.

            Thales Belfast will be booming for years on the back of this.

            Affordable, mid tech, battle proven weapons with 5* user reviews.

            What is not to like?

            Systems like Blowpipe did untold damage to the UK’s missive building reputation which was very unfair.

            There is also a school of thought that UK was a bit in the shade due to the US approach of using too much tech. So the UK weapons were viewed as being not good enough whereas ours are probably more robust and use an appropriate level of tech. Sometimes the fully integrated fandangle is more of a curse: if any one bit plays up the system is offline.

          • It will help if our own forces go all in on our tech rather than the ‘gucci’ US kit. Yes i’m thinking of Apaches and Brimstone. It’s hard to sell kit that our own forces turn their noses up at.

          • Good user reviews on the NLAW but not Javelin from the DNR/LDR militia as well when using captured units. The Ukr Army seems to have so many that they see no issue in leaving them behind when they retreat, a ‘there is more where they came from’ attitude.

          • “When they retreat” Always, always a little snipe or anti Ukraine comment in every post, even the ones when you are pretending to be reasonable, and have reduced the Pro Putin and Pro Invasion bile for a short period of time. But I suppose that’s the best bet at the moment since your Russkie Army has shown to be the real murdering, raping and looting Nazis currently in Ukraine Johny boy. And, my obvious question, to which you now ignore my whole post, in order not to reply as its easier, any condemnation of Putins illegal invasion of Ukraine?

    • Good question…….whilst I, like you, firmly support assisting Ukraine in amy way possible, I also see a dire need for increasing defence spending in the UK

      • 🙂 i will not stop spamming all over the internet that we need to increase defense spending until it hits around 4% to 5% again. You never know it might catch on one day before it’s too late, and we might get an increase.

        • I’d be happy for 2.5%, ecstatic with 3%.

          2.5% would mean approx. £6 billion a year increase to an even total of £50 billion per year. Personally I like nice round numbers like this!

          £50 billion PA would enable us to upgrade all current 227 Challenger IIs to C3, reverse all personnel cuts to the army and replace the 30-40 Tranche 1 Typhoons with Tranche 3s.

          • I want the 4% to 5% so we can actually have a good sized navy. What we’ve got and are looking to get in the next 20 years or so looks like a joke. I don’t mean the quality, I mean the quantity.
            I’d love to see us build 4/5 ships a year. 4% to 5% is the sort of money we would need to be able to do that.

          • 5% of GDP would be a solid £100 billion per year, so more than doubling the defence budget. I think that would be a hard sell to taxpayers; what other departments would you take money from to fund that?

            What would you also call a good-sized navy?

          • I’m a big proponent of CANZUK so a big enough navy to help cover those countries’ sphere of influence. Which is what, the North Atlantic, North pacific, South Pacific. Also the Arctic Ocean and Southern Ocean, especially if global warming caries on.

            As it’s not just the north-west passage that will be opening up. Between the CANZUK countries, we have around 66% of Antarctica claimed.

          • I would cut back the Treasury as they have been cutting defence for decades… it is about time they feel the pinch…

          • Only a small proportion is spent on the surface navy and air force, so even a small percentage increase, if hypothecated, would make a vast difference.

            Roughly £1.1bn per annum is spent on surface ship procurement and a similar amount on support. Each 0.1% of GDP is about 2.2bn, so adding just 0.1% of GDP could in the medium term double the spend on the surface fleet, if that’s all it went to.

            And doubling spend wouldn’t just double the size of the surface fleet. Stupidities such as slow build Type 26, are vastly inflating its cost when remediation is taken into account. Economies of scale could probably treble the size of the surface fleet and provide missiles to uparm it, if the money was spent wisely. However, you’d still need to spend on crew, so I’d settle for a modest doubling of the surface fleet, fitted with not just for, and extra crew to match.

            The issue is that extra money hasn’t gone to the things most observers would like to see. Even the Prime Minister said he wanted the best navy in Europe. That just isn’t where the money goes.

          • We could massively increase defense spending if we didn’t waste so much money.

            This is just one example of one tiny bit of waste. Because it’s so expensive to store £30 million pounds worth of PPE is going to be incinerated. Two civil servants are going hired and paid a total £360k between them to make sure that happens.

            I know a pyromaniac that would do it for FREE. FFS even if it’s a bit crap the PPE they want to burn I bet they could use it in Ukraine.

            Here’s another one for you. The department of Eduction are now going to roll out facial recognition cameras and software across schools. All so they can sodding bill kids for the school meals automatically and monitor them in exams (bollocks).

            How many billions do you think the numpties will waste on that ?

            There’s TENS of billions being wasted right across local and national government. We could put that all into defense and rebuild a lot of our old industries we’ve lost.

          • TBF the MOD ( with the help of each service at different times) have also wasted vast amounts of money

          • The waste needs to stop all over. We’ve got the highest tax burden ever, a cost of living crises and money is being wasted left right and centre.

            If we’re going to have high taxes at least get something out of it.

          • I absolutely agree with all the comments about the the waste. Like many, I worry that much of our increased spending will be absorbed by the bureaucratic leeches. We need to develop enough testicular fortitude to excise them.

          • I know this to be true as I saw this every day of my 9 years of service. Waste waste and more waste.

          • I think it was somewhere in the region of £8 billion pounds of PPE was written off as either not suitable to use or ran over its expiry date.

            Its probably all going to be burned to generate power so not actually incinerated.

            Some of the expirations will have been unavoidable, especially with FFP3 respirators, as these are individually fitted and acutes had to keep large numbers of different types and you may have only had a few staff using one type and you cannot change between staff members, if your tested and fitted for mask X1 your not allowed to use mask X2 As it will not fit you.

            A lot of the PPE expired well before the pandemic, there were warehouses full of pandemic PPE stocks that the labour government purchased. The thing was it was meant to be rotated out the warehouse used in service and replace. For some reason conservative governments of the last decade just let untold millions rot in warehouses so they did not have to pay for the rotation and restock. That why we had health worker using bin bags and people like me were up all night trying to move boxes of PPE around in desperate mutual aid….. when we got the pallets through from the warehouses, they had stuck labels with new expiration dates over kit that was actual up to 6 years out of data and actually fell Apart on people’s faces….not something I’m forgiving this government.

          • Agree you can’t spend everything twice. It would be good to see the pensions removed as that’s not really defence spending.just to make it clear…

            Im a firm believer that the direct tax base return in year should be rebated against spending. So all the income tax and NI from service personal has not actually been spent, it’s just circulated.

            This should also be the same with capital expenditures, so Any of a ships capital funding that comes back in corporation tax or ship builders income tax/NI.

            That would give you the actual cost to the tax payer ( which is not going to 2% of GDP) as well as encourage purchasing U.K. build and developed systems even if they cost a bit more.

          • Absolutely correct Robert. I think its practical to see incremental increases, but even 3% will be a tough sell for Bojo. Defence is poor a vote winner.

          • Back in the late 1990s 3% was considered a sensible figure for a capable military in peacetime, and the strategic defence review in 1997 envisioned a surface fleet of 32 ships and a dozen nuclear submarines, not counting the Trident boats.

            Granted, many of our escorts were of questionable capability back then, but it really brings into focus hoe savage the massacre of Blair/Brown and especially Cameron was. Between them they came close to crippling the nation’s war fighting ability, and the damage to the defence industry (especially shipbuilding) will take decades to fix.

            all that said though, I’m just about satisfied with the state of the RN, all things considered. We need more F35s for the carriers and we need Mk41 on T31, and more submarines in the future, but that last point can’t be addressed quickly.

            if more money is forthcoming, I would honestly prefer it to be spent on the RAF, which is still absorbing painful cuts even as the naval situation has improved.

          • I agree.

            2.5% I think we could increase to 12 frontline RAF squadrons. 3% would probably allow us 15; say 10x Typhoon and 5x F35.

            Also an increase in E7 Wedgetails is needed; 3 is a ridiculous number. Should be 7.

          • That would be more than enough. If we can replace the tranche 1 typhoons and maybe stand up one additional squadron, fighter numbers will be alright.

            the wedgetail situation is a classic example of Treasury brain: “well they’ve been making do with less than 5, so clearly they don’t actually need that many”.

          • Michael, in truth I’d settle for them keeping the Tranche 1 and grading theses. I served in Air Force Ops for several year and can tell you 3x E7 is a woefully inadequate force.

          • That’s sadly accountants the world over. Had that at work recently where one of my staff was moved to another team last year, I wasn’t able to recruit a replacement in time for the new budget year so Finance decided I didn’t need a replacement as I’d been making do for 4 months without.

            Just bean-counting bureaucrats the world over.

          • Reasonable and realistic: to be fair.

            Given the geological climate anyway.

            i think 3% is the upper limit and that would buy a huge amount of great kit.

    • The munitions will be war stock, in that the military has a large reserces of munitions in case of a conflict. So ultimately this will come from the defence budget but it won’t effect the day to day running of the military.

      • I’m not worried about the day to day running, but the long term effects. I just don’t want to see the likes of the recent uplift money given to defense blown on this. Instead of being spent on what it’s supposed to be spent on.

        • One thing that both Covid and Afghanistan showed is money is available when needed. They types of equipment we’ve sent to Ukrainian is relatively easy to replace, although I do fear that any increase in defence spending may be absurd by replenishing are war stocks.

          • Most munitions have a shelf life. Day to day running of the military will include writing off stocks of out of date munitions and equipment.

          • Exactly this – I would half expect that most of what we are sending was due to be written off in the next six to twelve months and destroyed anyway. May as well be used.

          • NLAW has been in production for some years now – its quite likely some may have reached their best before ( inspection and re-certification ) date.

          • Indeed. I can remember when doing my last 6 months service in the army at P&EE Shoeburyness, Serco had 4 bofors guns going full time just to blat off 500k rounds of ammunition just to get rid of it.

          • Yes, firing munitions is very often the cheapest way of getting rid.

            Problem is that once you are past the theoretical end date you can’t simply fire it off.

            Then you are into very expensive disposal techniques.

        • I read elsewhere that the Treasury will pick up the bill for the munitions taken from MOD stockpiles but no increase for UK defence spending. No. 11 is adamant not a penny more due to the £16bn ‘settlement’ announced last year. What a surprise….

          • Spot on on first point on second we’ll have to wait and see. What will the war in Ukraine look like what will the economy look like and out of the blue who will be Chancellor !

          • Sunak idolises Nigel Lawson, and he fought Boris hard over the nuclear power commitment in the energy strategy released Thursday.

            He’s going to resist calls for more defence spending if he’s still in office at the next budget, although public demand and Tory Party pressure might exact a few promises

    • It’s comes from treasury contingency funding which should probably pay to replenish missile stocks. That’s the normal position.

    • Probably some creative accounting where the mod sells them to the treasury at full price for the treasury to give them away out of the foreign aid budget. The mod them have the money to replace their dwindling stocks

      • I hope it is coming from the foreign aid budget seeing as it is aid and Ukraine is a foreign country. Happy to donate to Ukraine. The foreign aid budget being used for this rather than to fund a girl or boy band in South Africa or a pressure group in India seems much more impactful and worthwhile.

    • Technically we have supplied out of existing paid for stocks so any costs are more of an indirect accounting nature. That will change once we place orders to refil the warehouse and have to pay invoices. But big picture a very good use of pounds and dollars for the outsize impact to the Russian armed forces. Certainly has changed the way regular folk look at the Russian threat and maybe future land forces investment priorities.

    • Even if the cost of all of this aid comes from the MOD’s budget (I don’t think it does or at least the government is refunding this) there are much larger sums of money wasted on shit programmes like Ajax of Warrior WCSP, at least this way Russian soldiers and tanks are getting destroyed, much better value for money.

    • I don’t think we are “giving” them. I heard an interview recently where the value was being counted as aid and the inference a was that it was a loan and Ukraine would pay the costs back over time. Very much like the UK paid back US WW2 aid over many many years (decades actually)

  2. Could someone please explain to me where all these ‘anti-ship’ missiles are coming from, as stated by the PM.

    • Presumably they’re Martlets for use against lighter Russian corvettes, Ro-Ros and landing craft. I doubt we’re sending over a dozen Harpoon

      • They could prove vital down in Odessa as that’s where the Russians would use landing craft. Just deterring them would be a victory in that regard as it’s the only way they could have any hope to circumvent another long very costly slog which they are in no position to do from their present lines. I wonder if Brimstone might be offered to protect that very specific bit of coast too or would that be a step and cost too far and indeed could appropriate kit for it be provided. Must admit I hadn’t realised portable Martlet was available.

      • Could be very old “energency or war stocks” of Sea Eagle or ex RN surface ship mounted exocet? We had in the 1990s and early 2000s reasonably large numbers of these wespons in stock. They would probably still work against the Russians seeing as their military seem to be stuck with 1980s tech.

    • You read my mind completely! I read that some think these could be Sea Skuas that were recently withdrawn from service.

      Also what is the ‘long range artillery’ Boris was referring to? I doubt AS90s; maybe 105mm field guns perhaps?

      • I’d have thought FH70? 90? Not sure about the nomenclature but the artillery that was with the RRA Army Reserve Regiments; might be a useful piece of kit given it has some limited self propelled mobility. Although, did it fire a common NATO round? Happy to be corrected / updated.

        • I’d be very interested in finding out we had FH70 stashed away. As far as I’m aware they went decades ago.

          • Hi Di I think the FH70 went out of service circa 2008? Worst decision .God wiling, some bright spark kept them in storage and not into scrap iron.

        • From Wiki “Standard US pattern 155 mm ammunition can also be fired, although US primers proved problematic for the primer magazine and feed due to their variation in size.”

      • Does the UK retain any 155mm towed howitzers? Could be some of those. Not sure we would donate AS90. We have ver few of our own but as we seem to be in the process of never ending cutbacks why not give them to Ukraine? At least they will use them.

        • We are currently in the process of ordering some Korean K9 howitzers to replace the AS90 though will be a couple of years before they arrive, K9 is arguably the best howitzer on the market at the moment and doing brisk international sales. Some people saying the AS90 are a bit ropey due to old age and could be given but would be heavy on maintenance. The only other artillery UK could give from its own stocks would be towed L118 105mm (not really that long range) Government is mulling replacing it with a robotic motorized gun carriage or the M270B1 which has similar range to the Smerch but more accurate but that would be unlikely due to cost/time to replace, though the ammunition is about to expire contracts have been signed to refurbish the launchers to fire the new longer range 150/500km rockets under development in the US.

          • “Quote – We are currently in the process of ordering some Korean K9 howitzers to replace the AS90 though will be a couple of years before they arrive”

            Has that been confirmed then ?

            We are ordering K9s ?

  3. Yes it’s a photo op. But it also has a great deal of meaning both for Ukraine and about the U.K. stance.

    Interesting to see actually how it goes on how much more will be done. War crimes in Europe is not something the western democracies can really bare much longer without the weight of need for direct intervention becoming overwhelming. That’s a bit that worries me, unless Russia stops soon or changes how it’s acting on the ground I think there comes a point in time the European democracies would have to act. Its to close and to impactful of European identity to let it get it go for ever.

    • Being reported tens of thousands may be dead in Mariupol. Equally, information from an independent Russian source from last September regarding pre invasion official documents detailing that the campaign was to be about ‘purifying’ Ukraine and that most of the population are Nazis with no sense of irony, sent a shiver down my spine and would account for the events we saw around Kiev recently. Clearly they never thought that such evidence would ever be seen as they expected to never lose control. Can’t believe this is 2022 but gives some insight into what living in 1932 and beyond must have been like.

      • My rather depressing comment there is that this never changes, only gets spread out more between similar occasions, and NATO / EU has helped Europe increase the interval.

        The main difference here is that this one is on NATO / EU doorstep, like the Balkan wars of the 90s. Which has eventually made everyone react.

        How is Mariupol different from Vukovar? Except, perhaps, for scale, and the Russians being committed in greater measure to extermination rather than ‘ethnic cleansing’. I trust everyone has seen the so-called ‘genocide handbook’ article in the Russian press.

        When I read about contemporary wars elsewhere, it does not seem that different.

  6. I used to like Boris, but then he met Carrie & it all went virtue signalling wrong. Too much wine-o-clock, perhaps. Kate Bush, sang of the rubberband girl & that is Boris, now bouncing back.
    Re, Harpoon. It is not taken on for decades of service by Ukraine, with full health & safety. It would be a one off Heath Robinson bodge up. Only one needs to fire from Odessa, to give the Russian ships a hell of a scare, so they stay far out to sea.

  8. I was surprised that the Airseeker (why is it still being called by that pathetic American name, Rivet Joint) support was mentioned. This is surely highly classified (or at least sensitive) and would seriously annoy the Russians. Best not say anything about SF!

    • Rivet Joint has been visible on open source flight tracking websites for months – right up to the day of the invasion it and US aircraft were visible over Ukraine/the black sea – since then they’ve been relegated to doing laps along the Polish & Romanian Borders.

    • It’s called rivet joint because it’s an American aircraft… You can call it whatever the hell you want. And yeah I’m sure the SAS is all over the place.

  9. What Long-range Artillery?.UK has no towed 155mm artillery. Also all kit, Civil/Military is payed for and sent by any UK government on behalf of the British Taxpayer/Citizen. Slava Ukraini “Glory to Ukraine”.

    • Poland and Slovakia have 152mm self propelled artillery of types used by Ukraine. If they were to donate these to Ukraine perhaps we could backfill with AS90? It’s all gone quiet concerning the Polish T72s and Migs. Both these need to happen asap and depend on US agreement.
      The Czechs have sent a handful of T72s and some IFVs and some 152mm ammunition.

      • I’m glad it’s gone quiet on the Migs – things are happening.

        Zuzana and Diana (Diane) are not in service with the UkrMil, are they?

        However, fantastic training ground just south of Zvolen with Sliac providing a fantastic air bridge.

        • Sky New reported the Russians are launching 250 air sorties a day at Donbas so the Migs are really needed.
          Ukraine have ordered some Dana spg from Czechoslovakia but I don’t know if they have been delivered. As I understand the current situation their main concern is Soviet standard ammunition.

  10. Let’s hope enough weaponry has been given to the Ukrainian’s from whoever so that somehow, somewhere they can attack that bloody 8 mile long Russian convoy before it comes back into the country twice the size or larger! Plus some surprise anti-ship missiles to pop up where needed. Hope they can blow up the Kerch bridge some day, to cause some real inconvenience. Strength to Ukraine, it’s military, it’s people and it’s president! And good on Boris for showing up in Kyiv! 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 🇦🇺

    • With you 100% on Kerch bridge. Blowing it up would seriously impact Russian forces based in and supplied from Crimea.

      • Yes Kerch Bridge would be great and a very big symbol, but it is hundreds of miles away from any Ukraine troops, and would be difficult to do. Need some timed shaped charges so that it happens a few hours after you have gone a few hundred miles away. Special forces with Russian kit to hide behind?

  11. Wow a European country saying nice things about us. Things really are changing and all it took was a war a a few billion in defence aid. Next Macron will be getting the bromance on with Boris. 😀

  12. I would like to see money given to countries in aid, who have not denounced Russia or still trade with Russia be stripped of said aid and it used towards this funding that Boris has given…

      • I doubt the governments of those countries give a toss if we stopped aid.
        Is it not routed to people and organisations on the ground rather than through the governments?
        It’s the struggling people in those countries that receive the aid that would suffer most from aid cuts.
        If only there own countries cared about helping the needy.

  13. This quite interests me. How does it get into the Cauldron?

    • £2 million in vital food supplies for areas of Ukraine encircled by Russian forces.

  14. Not a fan of Boris but this needed to be done and I congratulate him for doing so. There are some more things we need to do. Firstly wave this ridiculous visa system, get the refugees into the UK through special trains or air lift and then do the paper work once they are here. Secondly, we need to replenish our war stocks of NLAW, Javelin, Manpads and other items gifted to Ukraine. That means extra spending and orders going out now. Thirdly, the defence situation has worsened and the defence budget needs to be adjusted. Must get interim anti-ship missiles on UK warships, do everything we can to accelerate the F35B build, get at least two new Typhoon Sqns into the RAF (failing that 2 F35A Sqns) & the Army – where to start; need at least 100k regulars, enablers, new artillery, go ahead with the Warrior upgrade and more Chally3!

    • Is ur suggestion that if the U.K. was in the EU the U.K. response would of been less?
      It may have been found that the EU response would be stronger from the uk input and views being shared. Who knows.
      Germany has given a lot of stuff I think. Main thing now is to keep it going. Ukraine needs help for many years to come

      • Mmmm….from what I’ve seen Germany, France, Italy and Spain’s military response has been miserable ( Germany didn’t even let UK supply flights to Ukraine pre-war fly over Germany). Ok France’s response has been beyond miserly – a total devious disgrace might sum them up better. It’s s pity some investigitive journo’s don’t put a blowtorch on them. The UK has been far too polite not calling them all out.

          • And why did they do that. Because they’d been warned not to ask Germany for permission as it would be refused.
            Everything Germany has done is having to be dragged out of it – same with France.

        • Germany

          • 1,000 Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank weapons on 26 February 2022, breaking a long tradition of banning weapon exports to active warzones.
          • 500 Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, on 26 February 2022
          • 2,700 9K32 Strela-2m anti-aircraft missile systems, on 3 March 2022.
          • 5,100 MATADOR anti-tank weapons via Dynamit Nobel
          • 2,000 additional Panzerfaust 3 were announced on 23 March 2022.
          • 100 MG 3 machine guns
          • 5 million 7.62×51mm NATO rounds
          • 3 million 5.56×45mm NATO rounds
          • 14 armored cars
          • 23,000 combat helmets
          • 1,300 bullet-proof vests
          • nightvision devices

        • France

          • Defensive weapons and fuel, announced on 26 February 2022.Specifics voluntarily kept confidential but include:Protective equipment
          • Fuel
          • MILAN anti-tank missile systems
          • Munitions

          • Germany is giving a lot. They also have the big uplift in defence spending. I’m also hopeful they are one of the countries that will put in the long term support. They know better than most what’s required to rebuild after a devastating war. While no country is perfect most are doing something.

          • Pittance. Note the complete lack of any coverage of French weapons being used or effective in Ukraine. Milan was stated to be ‘several dozen missiles’ – lets not get too generous shall we! UK has sent 1000’s.

            One French general complained that they shouldn’t send 2000 MG’s cos the French army would have less and that ‘European armies are poor’. Miserable. And their ‘ oh we don’t say what we supply’ policy is just duplicitous nonsense to cover it all up.

            And now it seems France is as usual leading the charge….. to NOT seize Russia overseas currency reserves for Ukraine reconstruction….they just get lower and lower.

            https://www.politico.eu/article/payback-time-west-make-russia-pay-war-ukraine-bill/

          • Reading the article it look as thought it would be legally diffcault to to size Russia overseas assets. All France are saying is that it isn’t legal, which it wouldn’t be. Note, there was no comment from the UK ($26 billion) or the US ($36 Billion) There is the issue of the future as well, as these sort of ideas are great until they effect you.

          • Yes it is legally difficult but France has signaled it just isn’t even interested in trying. Here I quote…

            ‘France, the country where Russia kept the largest share of its foreign reserves after China, said that frozen assets can’t be used to that end, according to a French treasury spokeswoman. A German treasury spokesperson declined to comment.’

            Can’t or won’t even try. Why is that? Most likely because France wants to deal with Russia after the war. And because if Russia’s holdings are seized by France then Russia is likely to retaliate by seizing French assets in Russia. France being one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia. Remember French companies tried to stay on in Russia whilst others were pulling out – but pressure from the French public and parliament has made that subsequently difficult. Note that after a meeting Macron had with the top French companies invested in Russia it was commented by one of them that the French government was not putting any pressure on them to leave Russia.

          • “France being one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia”

            4th biggest behind Germany, USA & China. We are 9th if anyone is interested. I would suspect that most country’s are not keen on oversea assets being confiscated, as it could well be a double edged sword. Like I said no comment from the UK or US ether.

            ‘France, the country where Russia kept the largest share of its foreign reserves after China, said that frozen assets can’t be used to that end, according to a French treasury spokeswoman.”

            Might that be,because it is illegal, under international law currently ?
            I am not trusting of the long term aims of the France ether, but you cant going randomly breaking international law just because you think you are right. and what are the views of the other country involved in this ?

  16. Thank God Britain has Boris because Biden hasn’t done much of anything except tell everyone he’s scared to death of pissing off Putin and starting WW3. If it wasn’t for Boris’ leadership Ukraine would probably be part of Russia again by now. Hats off to the Brits’.

    • Nothing on telly, so watched DVD of 1993 film “Hot shots part deux”. Very daft. Lloyd Bridges played President Benson. Reminded me of Biden, a lot.

      • Nah!

        Tug Benson was the greatest ever fictional President of the United States; no one else would have fought Saddam Hussein with a lightsabre!

        Certainly not Biden

        • Was it the scene where President Benson knocks out the crew of an Iraqi patrol boat with one of his farts? or when he does not recognize his wife & has the secret service arrest her? For some reason I thought of Biden.

      • There’s no evidence to support your position. We have no way of knowing what Trump would have done. On the other side of the coin, Putin had no way of knowing what Trump would have done. Whereas, Biden provided Putin a road map as to what Biden would do. And, he actually provided an example when he abandoned our allies and Americans, behind enemy lines, in Afghanistan.

      • You need to study some history… All the initial javelins came from the Trump administration and lots and lots of other things…

    • I do have to say I’ve been very disappointed in the Biden administration from a foreign policy point of view. I do think he’s underwhelming and lacked a level of aggression ( in the political sense ) that has green lighted Putin.

      Im in no way a Trump fan as I think was way to inconsistent and geopolitics really demand a western liberal democracies first approach with a consistent message and set of structures to hang the western hegemony around. Everyone knows the US is the leading power of the western hegemony but that requires leadership and partnership as hegemony only works with a first amongst equals co-operative approach.

      But it’s not just the US and trump, the U.K.and EU are all guilty of putting immediate profit before ensuring the long term strategic security and strength of western democracies as a whole.

      hopefully we will se a change, with the realisation that Russia and China are direct geopolitical opponents and the rest of the world, India, South America, Africa is at best neutral and at worst sees advantage in the decline of the west.

    • Biden was meant to respond in kind to a Russian WMD attack ie chemical weapons – he didn’t.
      He is weak and unreliable.

  17. Interesting the Ukraine UK ambassador has been saying that the U.K. has been “coordinating” global weapons acquisitions since December, not just providing arms.

  18. Slightly off thread, understand that German government is considering sending upwards of 50 (out of possible 200) Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine with deliveries starting in 6weeks if approved.
    It appears that they might be from ex Italian stock as RM Italia are involved in the potential transfer.
    There are clear trg and potential parts supply issues to overcome, but apparently all doable.
    Would be even better if they sent all 200 I imagine.

    • Leopard 1 has weak armour, a skilled experienced crew could make it work using the right tactics, I’m not sure of the merit of throwing it into the fight with crews inexperienced in using it though.

      • Im no tankie, I know it traded protection for speed, but the gun is still good, and there is plenty of 105mm ammo about still?
        If the transfer goes through, the Ukrainians will have more tanks, trg/tactics aside. I suppose when in need you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

    • Surprising – last I heard they didn’t eant to supply a gew dozen Marders so it will be worth watching about the Leopards. Personally I’d rsther see Russian equipment supplied where possibly given Ukraine already has the logistical base to use it.

      • I’ve not read the original article in a German newspaper, but The Drive picked it up and reported it. Apparently to Evan get considered by the German government, RM Italia had to be involved so no direct link to Germany!!! That’s politics I suppose.
        Yes have to agree, much rather see ex Russian equipment headed their way, but as I’ve said, you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!

  19. Whilst there is some understandable criticism around Bojo, the UK has much to be proud of in it’s support of the Ukraine. Other countries may well take a leaf from Bojo’s book. The proof of the friendship is in the pudding, or at least in this article.

  21. Just a thought but if Russia had accidental dropped a rocket on Boris, I wonder what that would mean for any article 5 trigger.

    • It is a curious scenario but harks back to the start of WW1.

      I think the opposition would be so glad it happened that they would refuse to engage in anything as a retaliation!

  22. Ironically the Russian SU-30, SU-34 and SU-35 (all of the SU-27 family) use Thales Damocles targeting pods and reportedly most of their cockpit instruments are also made by Thales due to total lack of avionics/precision targeting equipment produced by Russia. Supposedly reason Russia has barely produced any MiG-35 is due to sanctions as it uses almost entirely western avionics, similar problem is being experienced by the SU-57 which during its deployment in Syria didnt even have weapons management systems completed and could only drop dumb bombs or release smart munitions under control from ground.

  23. It has been really heartening to see how good our weapons actually are. Due to the high cost not many people get to use NLAW, Javelin, and HVM live.

    • I would say it’s good to know the kit your issuing to your soldiers does actual work against a conventional enemy. None asymmetric warfare does not really give that opportunity.

  24. Worrying report that Russia may have used chemical weapons. Being investigated as unconfirmed. But it would not surprise me if Russia was using some form of less than lethal agents to see if it can get away with it.

    • There was a photo in Summer 2020, of a Russian SU-27SM, on exercise, using a IAB-500. This simulates a tactical nuclear bomb in exercises. It weighs 470kg. Has 150kg of kerosene, 58 kg of red Phosphorus & 34 kg of TNT. If you were hit with one of those, you might suspect chemical weapons use from the red phosphorus.

  25. Got to say it’s been impressive how much aid we have given them, considering the low stocks.

    If a number of key policticans hadn’t said stupid things and isolated ourselves from key talks involving the US/EU, we could have actually come out of this policitally stronger on a global/regional stage, and it been a sign that global britian really exists and not a vanity project.

    • Who said what & why does it mean we haven’t .
      What exactly have the EU done thats any more than what we have?..nonwithstanding Eastern EU of course (Poland for example who have vested interest in sticking it to the Russkies both geopolitically ~& historically)..
      Just cus Old sleepy Joe & Napolean didnt want Johnon involved doesnt make it less so.

    • The 4 largest countries in the EU have tried to do as little as possible. The UK has along with Poland done the heaviest lifting in Europe supported by the Baltics and Scandies.

      • I am very proud of my Polish cousins. My last Polish aunt passed away, aged 95. She had been used as slave labour by the nazis during WW2. As a result, she never had children. Rather than let her house stand empty, my cousins let a Ukrainian family of 6 stay there. When you consider the horrors she suffered in war, I am sure she would be glad that her house is giving shelter to refugees of war.

      • Correct. I fail to see what E.U. solidarity has achieved in real terms. The U.K. was out of the traps early and fast. We would still be stuck in meetings if bound by E.U. terms and conditions. Johnson is everything and bit more what people have been saying but here he deserves credit. Incidentally, how does a security cordon protect anyone from a cruise missile like the only Ian shot at refugees waiting for a train? It can’t. That was some risky photo-op.

  26. Said on LBC radio interview this morning that the Ukrainian army will be coming to the UK to train on the 120 vehicles and for additional advanced weapon training in the next few days.

    • If only we could take a naval party in readiness for gifting 2*T23s… we were going to give them to the Greeks anyway and although limited, if this war is still going in a year, they will be invaluable.

      • What would Ukraine do with T23s or any ships? They couldn’t get them into the Black Sea, let alone dock them anywhere.

        Missiles are what they need, anti-tank, anti-ship, anti-air. Plus some tanks, T72s on their way from Poland and Czech Republic. They may also get Mig-29s if someone else guarantees Slovakian airspace.

  27. So it was a brazen attempt at deflection by Bluffer as the truth comes out.

    And a CP team were put at risk because he can’t face the truth and needed a photo op; shameless.

    Tobias Ellwood, Jonny Mercer, there are several decent Con MPs who could lead this country but not Bluffer.

  28. Sometimes it needs to be said, but I feel proud to be British after what our Country has done for Ukraine. When all of this is over, I know a great many of us will want to go over there for a holiday. I look forward to seeing their tourism sector boom! As for Putin’s vision of Russia, well that really turned out well for him didn’t it 😀

    • How does it go again…..Respect the King, the Church and the Laws….the Old Lion still has its teeth and its claws….

  29. I know I must be boring but when I watch various leaders doing walkabouts, I always like to try and spot the CP team members, and see how they are doing and if many others clock them. With Boris, the footage is limited but it would seem Boris has said he will have the Ukrainian lads doing the PPO work and the inner cordon. That’s probably to show he trusts them! I clocked Boris lads, moving to a flank, 4 lads (will be a few more), pretty much on the edge of the outer cordon, when footage is being taken (they do change position when less camera action). Not sure who or where the TL/ PPO (if the same on this job) is with Boris, is he isn’t close and this would make the TL a nervous friggin wreck! I’m sure their is a CAT team (counter attack team) in a wagon, moving to the rear, out of shot or maybe leapfrogging and stopping, as the group move. And you will be sure the SAP (security advance party) has moved that route prior, on the quiet! And, I think I have clocked at least 1 UK trained (brit) wearing Ukrainian gear moving with the group….Anyway many of you who know me know I can be very boring….lol……Yes currently days off and bored!

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