Sunak gives Ukraine timely boost of support with Kyiv visit

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak showed the U.K.’s continued commitment to Ukraine with a surprise visit to Kyiv hours after joining U.S.-led strikes on Yemen that risk drawing further attention from the struggling war effort in Europe.

Sunak brought with him a new security commitment and a pledge of £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) of military aid next year, gestures intended to bolster Ukraine amid stalled talks over additional support in Brussels and Washington. Britain is the first country to follow through on last year’s Group of Seven pledge to pursue bilateral security agreements with Kyiv as it seeks to repel Russian forces who invaded almost two years ago.

The funding represents a £200 million increase over the £2.3 billion the U.K. provided in each of the past two years, although Sunak stopped short of promising a longer-term package as some had sought. He’s expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the U.K. government said in an emailed statement.

The trip to Kyiv was all the more dramatic coming the morning after Sunak authorized British forces to join U.S. President Joe Biden’s air strikes on Yemen. The move – designed to prevent attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on commercial shipping and foreign warships off the Yemeni coast – nevertheless escalates a crisis that has drawn international attention away from Ukraine over the past three months.

Managing the twin conflicts represents a major political challenge for Sunak, a former chancellor of the exchequer and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who has been trying to keep his focus on jump-starting Britain’s stagnant economy. Members of the Liberal Democrats and Scottish Nationalist Party condemned Sunak’s failure to consult Parliament before the strikes, while Labour leader Keir Starmer called for Sunak to publicly lay out his reasons for the move in the House of Commons.

“We are supporting this action,” Starmer told the BBC on Friday. “I do want the prime minister, obviously, to make a statement to Parliament as soon as possible because the scope, nature and extent of the operation needs to be explained.”

Despite the UK’s exit from the European Union and diminished military capacity, the country has repeatedly provided vital backing to Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion in February 2022. Right-wing resistance to continue Ukraine funding in Europe and the U.S. and has left the UK as arguably the country’s most stable source of weapons, training and financial aid.

“The United Kingdom stands with Ukraine,” Sunak said in Kyiv, adding that he wanted “to send a strong signal of support to the Ukrainian people, but also a strong signal of support that Vladimir Putin needs to recognize – we’re not going anywhere.”

Sunak said that new security guarantees with Ukraine would see Britain provide “swift and sustained” support for the country, if it is attacked by Russia again. The increased UK funding would go toward long-range missiles, air defense, artillery ammunition and maritime security, with at least £200 million earmarked for drones to provide surveillance, long-range strike and marine capabilities.

Support for Ukraine still enjoys broad cross-party backing in the UK, despite a looming general election later this year in which Sunak’s Conservatives are trailing far behind Labour. The main opposition party’s shadow defense secretary, John Healey, said Labour “fully backs” the increase in Ukraine funding, calling it “vital support for Kyiv’s fight against Putin’s illegal invasion.”

–With assistance from Stuart Biggs and Joe Mayes.