The United Kingdom confirms its support for Ukraine: the first European country to have supplied defensive weapons to kyiv (in particular anti-tank missiles, from January), it will still devote 300 million pounds sterling (356 million euros) to military aid to the country, announced Boris Johnson, Tuesday, May 3, during a speech broadcast to the Ukrainian Parliament. London will deliver radars, drones capable of lifting heavy loads to supply Ukrainian troops and thousands of night vision equipment.
The British Prime Minister is the first Western leader since the beginning of the Russian invasion invited to speak before the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, and he received a standing ovation. Ukraine ” go win “, she “will be free again”, Mr Johnson promised in his address, delivered from Downing Street. Paraphrasing his hero, Winston Churchill, he added that the country “lives its hour of glory, an epic chapter of [son] national history. Your children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor counts for nothing against the moral force of a people determined to be free”.
The invitation to speak before the Rada was made by the Ukrainian government, “in recognition of the UK’s support for Ukraine”, said a Downing Street spokesperson. Mr. Johnson’s popularity is certain in kyiv, where he went on April 9, and to which he had already promised the delivery of 120 armored vehicles, anti-aircraft defense systems and hundreds of anti-ship missiles, in addition of the 5,000 portable anti-tank missiles already delivered since January. In addition, the Johnson government claims to have provided £400 million in humanitarian and economic aid.
Downing Street perfectly assumes its role of virulent critic vis-à-vis Moscow. On Tuesday, Boris Johnson again called Vladimir Putin a“autocrat” castigated his “terrible mistakes”and assured that his government would “continue to provide arms, funding and humanitarian aid to Ukraine (…) until we have achieved our long-term goal, which must be to strengthen Ukraine so that no one ever dares [l’]assault”.
Russian nuclear threat
This unqualified support provokes almost no debate in the United Kingdom, even when Russian state media agitate the nuclear threat against the country. Sunday 1er May, Russia-1 presenter Dmitry Kiselyov suggested that all it would take was a Russian Poseidon nuclear missile to cause a “tsunami that would submerge” the British Isles and “would turn them into a radioactive wasteland”.
You have 33.96% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
