Russia to ‘Unleash Decade of Aggression,’ New UK Defense Secy Warns

As part of his efforts to settle the conflict in Ukraine, Prime Minister John Healey of the United Kingdom has called on NATO members to allocate 2.5% of their GDP to defense. According to him, the United Kingdom has been dealing with increasing Russian aggression for at least ten years, and helping Ukraine win is their top priority. 

Kyiv will receive £3 billion in military aid annually until 2031, and the United Kingdom has joined a partnership with eleven other nations to provide the Ukrainian government with one million drones.

The invasion of Ukraine and subsequent threats from both Iran and China have prompted Healey to announce next week the beginning of a strategic defense review that would evaluate the UK’s military capabilities. He will have the opportunity to push for more robust security connections with Europe next week when he hosts a conference of the European Political Community at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

He’s explained that the international community will not budge in response to Russia’s unrelenting aggression. Therefore, the UK will increase its military aid package to Ukraine by £3 billion per year. Following President Putin’s horrific actions this week, which included a deadly attack on a children’s hospital in Kyiv, the confirmation of the UK’s multi-year £3 billion military financing package follows.

Along with contributing £40 million to NATO’s Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine, the UK is set to provide 90 Brimstone missiles and a new shipment of artillery in the coming weeks. The UK-administered International Fund for Ukraine will place a new order of 120,000 rounds of 152mm Soviet-era ammunition, worth £300 million, to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses against Russia.

During a special session on Ukraine, he will remind NATO members that the organization must honor its founding principles by defending the principles that the whole community regards as essential. He will make the case that the Ukrainian trenches are the Euro-Atlantic region’s frontline defense and that the founding generation of NATO was responsible for defeating Nazism.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022—which was both unlawful and poorly calculated—the UK provided about £12.5 billion in military, humanitarian, and economic aid. To choke off revenue sources that fund Putin’s war machine, the UK has pledged 200 additional air defense missiles, upgraded drones worth over £300 million, and fifty new sanctions this year alone.