The Prime Minister is expected to hail the resistance of Ukraine against tyranny as an exemplar for the world in a live address to the country’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, today.
As the British embassy reopens in Kyiv, the Prime Minister will say the United Kingdom is “proud to be among Ukraine’s friends” when he speaks to parliamentarians via videolink.
Ministers updated Parliament last week on plans to send sophisticated land Brimstone missiles and STORMER air defence vehicles to Ukraine. The Prime Minister will today set out a new package of military aid today worth £300 million, to support Ukraine’s ongoing defence against Russia’s illegal invasion. The package includes electronic warfare equipment, a counter battery radar system, GPS jamming equipment and thousands of night vision devices.
The UK will also send in the coming weeks heavy lift systems to provide logistical support to isolated forces, and more than a dozen new specialised Toyota Landcruisers to help protect civilian officials in Eastern Ukraine and evacuate civilians from frontline areas, following a request from the Ukrainian government.
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to say:
When my country faced the threat of invasion during the Second World War, our parliament – like yours – continued to meet throughout the conflict, and the British people showed such unity and resolve that we remember our time of greatest peril as our finest hour.
This is Ukraine’s finest hour, an epic chapter in your national story that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come.
Your children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor counts for nothing against the moral force of a people determined to be free.
