British PM Sunak boosts aid in unannounced Ukraine visit
KYIV, Ukraine — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised 125 anti-aircraft guns and other air-defense technology as he made an unannounced visit Saturday — his first — to Ukraine’s capital for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The air-defense package, which Britain valued at $60 million, comes as Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure from the air, causing widespread blackouts for millions of Ukrainians.
The package includes radar and other technology to counter the Iran-supplied exploding drones that Russia has used against Ukrainian targets. It comes on top of a delivery of over 1,000 anti-air missiles Britain announced this month.
The U.K. has been one of the staunchest Western backers of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. Speaking alongside Zelenskyy, Sunak noted that the U.K. has given $2.7 billion in military aid and pledged: “We will do the same again next year.”
Speaking through a translator, Zelenskyy said Russian strikes have damaged around half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
As snowflakes fell, Zelenskyy greeted Sunak at a presidential palace. He called the two countries “the strongest of allies.” Walking in the snow, they inspected captured Russian tanks and other destroyed military hardware used by the invasion forces that are displayed in a Kyiv square.
“With friends like you by our side, we are confident in our victory. Both of our nations know what it means to stand up for freedom,”
the Ukrainian leader said on Twitter.
Sunak also laid flowers at a memorial for the war dead, lit a candle at a memorial for victims of a deadly Soviet-era famine in Ukraine in the 1930s and met first responders at a fire station, his office said.
Sunak’s visit came in the wake of a major recent battlefield success for Ukraine: the recapture of the southern city of Kherson. The restoration of rail connections brought further joy Saturday to Kherson’s residents.
“This is the beginning of a new life,” said Ludmila Olhouskaya, 74, who didn’t have anyone to meet but went to the station to show support. “Or rather, the revival of a former one.”
On the battlefield, Russian forces launched 10 airstrikes, 10 missile strikes and 42 rocket attacks on Ukraine in the last day, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Saturday.
In Kherson, two Russian missiles struck an oil depot — the first time a depot
was hit in the city since the Russians withdrew, according to firefighters.
“There was a strong explosion,” said Valentyna Svyderska, who lives nearby. “We were scared, everyone was scared ... Because this is an army that is at war with the civilian population.”
Local authorities were struggling to respond to the blaze, the firefighters said, because Russian forces took the city’s fire trucks and ambulances when they retreated.
Russia is pressing an offensive in the eastern Donetsk region, and Ukraine reported heavy fighting around the city of Bakhmut, the town of Avdiivka and the village of Novopavlivka.
In Poland, a funeral was held Saturday for one of the two men who died when a missile landed there last week, according to the state news agency PAP. A military honor guard and Polish and Ukrainian representatives joined the man’s family and members of the community.