Dozens of artillery guns, hundreds of drones and tens of thousands of ammunition rounds are to be sent by the UK to Ukraine over the coming weeks.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the package would ensure that Ukrainians had the “tools to defend their country from Putin’s illegal invasion”.
The announcement follows last month’s government pledge of another £1bn in military support to Kyiv.
Russia has said its military focus is no longer limited to eastern Ukraine.
In an interview with state media on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov implied Moscow’s strategy had changed after Western nations supplied Ukraine with increasingly powerful weapons.
The latest support from the UK is set to include more than 20 M109 155mm self-propelled guns and 36 L119 105mm artillery guns, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
A further 50,000 rounds of ammunition for Ukraine’s Soviet-era artillery have also been promised, along with drones and at least 1,600 more anti-tank weapons.
Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute said the latest package of British support was “very much attuned with what Ukraine needs”.
He said some of the guns offered are capable of outranging Moscow’s artillery. But because Kyiv’s troops were using around 6,000 rounds a day, there would be a “ongoing requirement”, he added.
Since Russia launched its invasion in February, Kyiv has issued multiple requests for weaponry.
Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska addressed the US Congress on Wednesday, asking for more air-defence systems to “help us to stop this terror against Ukrainians”.
An announcement of another £1bn in support for Ukraine, announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson at last month’s Nato summit in Madrid, has taken the UK’s total military aid for Kyiv to £2.3bn.
The MoD said it had already provided more than 6,900 anti-tank missiles, multiple launch rocket systems and 120 armoured vehicles among other provisions. (BBC)
