LONDON (Reuters) – Ukraine will receive fresh military support worth 450 million pounds ($580 million), Britain said on Friday, as European allies attempt to strengthen the country’s position ahead of any peace deal with Russia.
Britain will provide 350 million pounds of the amount from its 4.5-billion-pound military support package for Ukraine this year, with Norway contributing further funding, Britain’s ministry of defence said.
The funding comes as British defence minister John Healey chairs a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels along with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius. The group includes NATO and other nations supporting Ukraine.
The funding will provide repairs and maintenance to vehicles and equipment as well as radar systems, anti-tank mines and hundreds of thousands of drones.
“The work of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group is vital to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position and pile pressure on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to help force him to end this terrible war,” Healey is expected to say at the meeting.
“We cannot jeopardise peace by forgetting the war, which is why today’s major package will surge support to Ukraine’s frontline fight.”
Healey on Thursday chaired a meeting of the defence ministers of the so-called “coalition of the willing”, a British and French-led peacekeeping initiative in the event of a peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
($1 = 0.7744 pounds)
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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