British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday made a surprise trip to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pledging a major new infusion of British arms and financial aid to help counter the expected deadly new phase in Russia’s military offensive.
After the meeting, Johnson said: “Ukraine has defied the odds and pushed back Russian forces from the gates of Kyiv, achieving the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century.”
“It is because of President Zelenskiy’s resolute leadership and the invincible heroism and courage of the Ukrainian people that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s monstrous aims are being thwarted. I made clear today that the United Kingdom stands unwaveringly with them in this ongoing fight, and we are in it for the long run,” he said.
Photo: AFP / the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
“We are stepping up our own military and economic support and convening a global alliance to bring this tragedy to an end, and ensure Ukraine survives and thrives as a free and sovereign nation,” he added.
Late on Saturday, Downing Street said the UK would send 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems to Ukraine.
The missiles can do serious damage to Russian warships and could be used to tackle the Russian navy siege of Black Sea ports.
The UK last week pledged ￡100 million (US$130 million) in military assistance, including another 800 anti-tank missiles; more anti-aircraft weapons; “suicide drones,” which hover over the battlefield before attacking a target; and helmets, body armor and night-vision goggles.
Johnson has been praised by Zelenskiy, who contrasts the fulfillment of a promise to deliver vital anti-tank weapons to its army with the more timid responses from other NATO member countries such as Germany.
The security situation in Ukraine’s capital has stabilized since Russia withdrew from its positions around the city on March 29 to regroup its forces and consolidate territorial gains in Ukraine’s south and east.
Johnson’s visit comes a day after Zelenskiy called on Western allies to provide more military aid and step up sanctions on Russia in the wake of a missile attack on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk that killed 52 people, including five children.
Western intelligence officials believe a Russian short-range ballistic missile was fired indiscriminately toward the town center.
At the time of the attack the station was packed with civilians who had been ordered by the Ukrainian government to evacuate the town in the face of the Russian advance from the southeast.
“I have already left Kramatorsk, because when a missile hit a school very close to my house, we were very scared,” said Sofiya Ruban, 17, who fled to the Kyiv area with her family. “When we heard about yesterday’s airstrikes at the railway station we were shocked and very saddened.”
Russian shelling and missile attacks have intensified in several areas across eastern Ukraine as Moscow moves its “special military operation” away from toppling the government to focus on building a corridor connecting the Russian-occupied region of Crimea with Luhansk and Donetsk — also de facto controlled by Moscow — with the Russian mainland.
The besieged city of Mariupol, together with the southern city of Mykolaiv, which has faced significant shelling, are major Kremlin targets, the British Ministry of Defence has said.
With trains not running out of Kramatorsk on Saturday, panicked residents boarded buses or looked for other ways to get out, fearing the kind of unrelenting assaults and occupations by Russian invaders that brought food shortages, demolished buildings and death to other cities in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy called the station attack the latest example of war crimes by Russian forces and said it should motivate the West to do more to help his country defend itself.
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