Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that Britain will help bolster Ukraine’s air defences by using £70million of seized Russian assets ahead of a crucial NATO summit in The Hague
The UK will shore up Ukraine’s air defence with hundreds of missiles paid for using £70million from seized Russian assets. The ASRAAM (Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missiles) missiles have been adapted by RAF engineers so they can be fired from the back of military trucks. Keir Starmer announced yesterday that Kyiv would be given a new package of 350 missiles, which can be fired using UK-provided air defence launchers. It comes as the Prime Minister arrived in The Hague for a critical NATO summit on Tuesday, where the crisis in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine will top the agenda.
Mr Starmer said: “Russia, not Ukraine, should pay the price for Putin’s barbaric and illegal war, so it is only right we use the proceeds from seized Russian assets to ensure Ukraine has the air defence it needs. “The security of Ukraine is vital to the security of the UK and the Euro-Atlantic area, and our support will never waiver. “My message to President Putin is clear: Russia needs to stop its indiscriminate attacks on innocent Ukrainian people and return to the negotiating table.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is attending the NATO summit on Wednesday to push for guarantees of further Western aid against Russia.
Multiple civilian sites hit
Russian air attacks killed at least 24 civilians and injured more than 200 others in Ukraine, officials said on Tuesday.
A Russian ballistic missile attack on Dnipro hit multiple civilian sites in the central Ukrainian city around midday, killing 17 people and injuring more than 200 others.
And in the nearby town of Samar, an attack killed two people and injured 14, Dnipro’s regional administration head Serhii Lysak said.
The barrage damaged 19 schools, 10 kindergartens, a vocational school, a music school and a social welfare office, as well as eight medical facilities, according to Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov.
Schools in the reigion are currently closed for the summer holidays.
One of the blasts blew out the windows of a passenger train carrying about 500 people, and Mr Filatov declared Wednesday to be an official day of mourning.
In a post on Telegram, Zelensky said Russia needs foreign components to build its ballistic missiles – and urged countries to crack down on Moscow’s “schemes” to obtain them.
He said: “Sanctions against Russia must also be significantly strengthened.”
Vladimir Putin’s forces also shelled residential neighbourhoods and critical infrastructure across Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, killing four civilians and wounding at least 11 others, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration.
According to the most recent UN estimates in February, more than 12,654 civilians have been killed and over 29,392 injured since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
Ukraine has also lost between 60,000 and 100,000 serving military personnel.