Kyiv calls on Cameron to speed up aid

UKRAINE’S president and foreign minister pressed UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron to accelerate the delivery of promised military aid to Kyiv, as Russia heaps battlefield pressure on depleted Ukrainian forces in the third year of war.

“It is important that the weapons included in the UK support package announced last week arrive as soon as possible,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Twitter/ X, after Cameron visited Kyiv on Thursday.

Zelenskyy said that armoured vehicles, ammunition and missiles of various types were top of the list.

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who also met with Cameron, said on Twitter/ X that the focus was on “speeding up military aid”.

That message was rammed home by the deputy chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, Major- General Vadym Skibitsky, who said Russia is trying to exploit its current advantage in weapons and manpower and is planning a major offensive this summer.

“Our problem is very simple: We have no weapons,” Skibitsky was quoted as saying in an interview with The Economist published yesterday.

Vital support pledged by Western allies to help Ukraine fend off the Kremlin’s forces has been delayed by political disagreements in the US and a lack of manufacturing capacity in Europe. That has opened a door to advances for the bigger and better- equipped Russian army, especially along the frontline in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western partners are in a race against the clock to deploy the new military aid in the coming weeks and prevent Russia taking more ground.