UK commits £3bn a year in Ukraine aid | BBC News

UK commits £3bn a year in Ukraine aid | BBC News

the foreign secretary Lord Cameron has said the UK will give at least three billion pounds worth of Aid to Ukraine every year for as long as necessary he made the comments in Kiev while meeting President zalinski in terms of what the ukrainians do in our view it is their decision about how to use these weapons they’re defending their country they were illegally invaded by Putin and they must take those steps we don’t discuss any um caveats that we put on on those things but let’s be absolutely clear Russia has launched an attack into Ukraine and Ukraine absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia our correspondent James Waterhouse joined us from Kev a little earlier I asked him what kind of a difference Lord Cameron’s comments could make for Ukraine well Ukraine has always needed Western help to carry out its fight but what’s really interesting about Lord Cameron’s comments I mean he’s clearly in a hawkish mood during his visit to Kev he basically said Ukraine has the right to hit targets inside Russia with the weapons with the missiles that the UK provides that is not a view shared by other Western allies it’s actually a condition uh applied to their support that Ukraine doesn’t hit inside Russia why well with Ukraine hitting energy infrastructure inside Russia uh there are fears of energy prices rising but also the West has always been fearful or wary of an escalation in some way you just need to watch Russian State TV to see how they point out or allude to the fact that they’ve got a sizable uh arsenal of nuclear weapons so the West is keing to keep things this war within the boundaries of Ukraine but we are seeing Ukraine hit Russia with drones it makes domestically nevertheless this is a sizable offering from the UK and a sizable commitment 33 billion p a year for as long as it takes he described this war as being the biggest allenge of uh a generation it will include longrange missiles like storm Shadows which Ukraine has used effectively on occupied Crimea it will use air defense it will involve air defense uh equipment that will be used by teams you see in Ukrainian towns and cities as they try to take out drones launched by occupying Russian troops so this will be welcomed there is also uh part of the money will go towards restoring Ukraine’s energy infrastructure uh but look trips like these are welcome and I think this is the UK trying to keep the pressure up on other Western allies to say look you know we should all be doing as much as we can to keep Ukraine in the fight we can now speak to the Ukrainian MP Leia vasilenko thank you for joining us on BBC News I wanted to touch on some of what James had to say there particularly the comments from the British foreign secretary that the UK would support Ukraine using British weapons um to carry out attacks within Russia what kind of a difference would that make for Ukraine is this something that Ukraine has wanted there’s a huge difference uh attacks carried out on Ukraine are mainly uh originating from the territory of Russia so for us being able to HIIT back and destroy the sources of the attacks would uh would actually turn things around immensely especially for those regions bordering Russia like the Hari region like uh luhansk region the netk region all of those regions we could potentially uh not just keep the people there safe and secure but we could actually push back uh on Russia’s uh occupation of those territories and even freeos territories but would this really raise the prospect of an escalation in the conflict uh Russia does not need reason to escalate Russia escalates when it sees fit and when it is ready to escalate I would like to remind everyone that this attack Ukraine is fighting back on has been unprovoked from Ukraine either in 2022 nor in uh 2014 when Russia’s aggression first started so again Russia needs no provocation Russia will continue attacking for as long as it is able to attack this is why it is crucial to actually destroy those sources from which Russia is launching the tag those launch pads inside of Russia and also the launch pads that Russia has created within its the territories of Ukraine that it illegally occupies today and the UK now promising three billion pounds of Aid every year for as long as Ukraine needs this I’m sure this will be welcomed within Ukraine do you think this will put pressure on other Western countries to step up support for your country hopefully uh hopefully this as well as the phrase that uh Ukraine is to protect itself in whichever way it sees fit even by attacking Targets in Russia the UK has often been the Forerunner of uh Aid to Ukraine uh the storm Shadows the longrange missiles the uh Challenger tanks uh the UK was the first country to give Ukraine the tanks that were needed on the battlefield and then other nations followed so similarly with this St uh there is great hope that all the other countries that are helping Ukraine today militarily financially that they will follow suit and that they will increase their uh spending or their investment in the collective security by giving more to Ukraine for as long as it takes but also by uh taking away that Clause that uh the weapons are only to be used within the territory of Ukraine and just briefly uh Leia of course we’ve seen more Aid coming from the us as well is that having an impact on the ground where we’ve seen Ukraine lose territory over the last few months hopefully these territories will be regained but it will take some time it’s not overnight that the weapons get delivered it’s not overnight that the aid gets delivered uh it should be there by the end of 2024 but it depend there’s always the question of when will it arrive and in this bulk form um so we are hopeful the front lines are hopeful in Ukraine and we are ready to use those weapons as soon as they arrive Leia veleno thank you for joining us

UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said that Ukraine has the right to use British weapons to attack targets inside Russia.

Lord Cameron, who has met President Zelensky during a visit to the country’s capital, Kyiv, said the UK would donate military aid worth £3 billion a year “for as long as is necessary”.

He said British support would include precision-guided bombs and air defence missiles, which Ukraine could use as it saw fit.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously said that Russia is taking advantage of the slow delivery of Western weapons to go on the offensive.

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