UK Military Aid to Ukraine May Increase in 2023

"Be in no doubt. We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We will maintain or increase our military aid next year. And we will provide new support for air defense, to protect the Ukrainian people and the critical infrastructure that they rely on. By protecting Ukraine, we protect ourselves," Sunak is expected to say at a banquet in Guildhall in London, TASS reported.

Additionally, in his first major foreign policy speech, the UK prime minister will point out the necessity to develop the country’s long-term strategy.

"Under my leadership, we won’t choose the status quo. We will do things differently. We will evolve, anchored always by our enduring belief in freedom, openness and the rule of law and confident that, in this moment of challenge and competition, our interests will be protected and our values will prevail," he is expected to say.

"Our adversaries and competitors plan for the long term. In the face of these challenges, short-termism or wishful thinking will not suffice," his speech will note. "So we will make an evolutionary leap in our approach. This means being stronger in defending our values and the openness on which our prosperity depends."

The British prime minister’s office reiterated that the UK is currently in the process of revising and updating the 2021 Integrated Review of security, defense, development and foreign policy to take account of the "huge geopolitical shifts" that occurred since the review was published.

On November 19, during his visit to Kiev, Sunak said that the volume of the UK’s military aid to Ukraine had surpassed 3 bln pounds ($3.6 bln). The UK has already armed Ukraine with close to 7 thousand NLAW antitank complexes, over a hundred armored vehicles, Stormer self-propelled air defense guns with Starstreak missiles, several dozen M109 howitzers and L119 towed guns, M270 MLRS, over 16 thousand artillery shells, loitering munitions and 4.5 tons of plastic explosives.