UK, a key ally in Europe for Ukraine’s interests

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has been the latest high-level visitor to kyiv. The months of war are passing and leaving devastation, and in the British strategy the presence of its high positions is more than necessary.

Wallace, the retired military man whose popularity within the Conservative party is so high, in part because of the war in Ukraine, that he turned down a nomination for the primary that would elect the prime minister, has been a helping hand for Ukraine and an enemy face for Russia.

Its role has been to guarantee military support, which is already a State policy, regardless of who is the occupant of Downing Street and the party to which he belongs.

On his most recent visit to England, President Zelensky reinforced his message: Ukraine needs more support from the West to change the equation, including fighter jets.

In his passage of just a few hours, completing a diplomatic tour of different continents, the United Kingdom promised Ukraine the delivery of more military support to ensure that the Kiev battle strategy is successful, especially in the spring season.

“The UK will continue to provide its support to ensure that Ukraine wins a just and lasting peace,” said the prime minister’s spokesman, Rishi Sunak.

Millions of pounds worth of more military equipment

There have been weeks of announcements for the war that will be materializing in the coming months, fundamental in the spring strategy that, with a drier climate, forces it to change.

For his part, the military affairs expert from the Royal Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies (RUSI), Carlos Solar, explained to France 24 that Ukraine relies heavily on weapons and technology to ensure victory.

“They needed new weapons, adjusted to what is happening on the battlefield. The Ukrainian Army is far smaller in size than the thousands of conscripts Russia can constantly put on the front lines. Ukraine requires weapons that are effective for their size and that can deal with the Russian offensive that is to be expected.”

These announcements include air defense missiles, drones with a range of more than 200 kilometers, in addition to Storm Shadow precision missiles.

According to the government, “this is the first long-range cruise missile in Ukraine’s arsenal and will be instrumental in helping the country fend off relentless bombardment of its infrastructure.”

“These are drones that are not within the British military, but rather they are drones that the UK is going to buy from suppliers and they are going to go direct from the supplier to Ukraine. Decision makers are using their imagination to come up with viable new strategies to support the Ukrainian front,” Solar says.

British support also includes the training of thousands of Ukrainian troops, mostly people with no prior military experience, on its soil.

The role of London and Washington

Carlos Solar explains that while the United States focuses its aid on providing weapons, because it has an important arms industry, the United Kingdom does so to suit it, but especially with political support that goes beyond its borders.

“These two ministers (Defense and Foreign Affairs) have not backed down. They have had 120% political support for Ukraine and it is something that, I think, the United States has preferred not to do because of the weight it has. He has had more hard power than soft power, and they wanted to strike a balance between the two”.

The British commitment to the defense of Ukraine, which began before the Russian invasion in 2022, has to do with the mark it left and the vestiges of the Second World War, 78 years later, are so strong that the United Kingdom seeks to avoid the escalation of the conflict that reaches that level.

On his most recent visit to the UK, the Prime Minister invited President Zelensky to his country residence, Checkers, in the south of England. A place loaded with meaning for a war context.

Here, in 1940, World War II hero Winston Churchill wrote and recorded the iconic messages to the nation in the midst of that war.

In politics there is no movement that is left to chance. And Rishi Sunak knows it.

F16 planes on the way?

President Zelenski has spared no arguments to explain to his allies why his country needs F16 planes to strengthen its air defense.

These, surely, would be delivered by a joint decision of NATO, to avoid a direct signaling of Russia to any of its members.

Solar explains that the planes will arrive in time just like the tanks. These, however, not only require pilot training but also a package of technologies on the ground.

“They need radars to know where to fly and what targets to hit, they need an electronic counteroffensive to disable the planes and radars coming from Russia to Ukrainian territory and they need to protect these planes, they need new surface-to-air missiles.”

The United Kingdom will lead the summit for the reconstruction of Ukraine this month in London. A destination with an uncertain date, but with many certainties.