Russia-Ukraine war: UK PM Sunak announces $304 million in military aid to Ukraine

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the United Kingdom would be sending a new batch of military aid to Ukraine as it pushes back against Russia. Sunak. The latest batch of aid includes additional rounds of ammunition.

A statement from the prime minister’s office on Monday said Sunak is expected to announce a new batch of aid for Ukraine worth $304 million. Sunak will make the announcement during his attendance at the Joint Expeditionary Force summit in Latvia on the same day. The new package includes hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds for Ukraine that aim to maintain a continued “flow of critical artillery ammunition” through 2023.

“The UK is already Europe’s leading provider of defensive aid to Ukraine, including sending Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, and recently, 125 anti-aircraft guns,” said the statement. “We have also provided more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition since February, with the deliveries directly linked to successful operations to retake territory in Ukraine.”

The UK is the second-biggest donor country to Ukraine, following the United States. Sunak also updated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the latest aid last week, according to the prime minister’s office.

The JEF meeting is made up of leaders from the UK, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. In his attendance, Sunak is also expected to call on his counterparts to maintain or increase their support for Ukraine in 2023. The leaders are also expected to discuss the efforts to push back against Russia’s aggression in the Nordic and Baltic regions of Europe.

The British defense ministry, in its intelligence bulletin on Monday, said that the Russian Wagner mercenary group continues to play a major role in the fighting taking place in the Donetsk region. The ministry added that the mercenary group has developed tactics to exploit the untrained convicts that were released that the group has recruited.

“Individual fighters are likely issued a smartphone or tablet which shows the individual’s designated axis of advance and assault objective superimposed on commercial satellite imagery. At platoon level and above, commanders likely remain in cover and give orders over radios, informed by video feeds from small uncrewed aerial vehicles,” said the ministry.