A Starstreak surface-to-air missile launcher set up on western Dartmoor during a Royal Marine ADT exercise there. Date 14 October 2009. By Wikimedia user (Nilfanion).
On March 24, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the UK will provide a new military aid package to Ukraine.
Johnson said while attending the NATO and G7 leaders’ meeting in Brussels that the UK will provide Kiev government forces with 6,000 missiles, in addition to the 4,000 NLAW and Javelin anti-tank missiles already supplied.
The PM confirmed that the new military aid package will include British-made Starstreak MANPADs [man-portable air-defense systems]. The system’s anti-aircraft missiles, which are guided by laser-beam riding, have a maximum range of 7 kilometers only.
“We’re providing £25 million in financial backing for the Ukrainian military, which is on top of the £400 million we’ve committed in humanitarian and economic aid,” Johnson said, adding that the UK will also provide an additional £4.1 million for the BBC World Service to tackle what he called “disinformation” in Russia and Ukraine.
Johnson’s announcement was not a surprise. The UK has been leading Western efforts to support the Kiev government side by side with the US.
Western military aid to Kiev government forces began before the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine on February 24. The UK in particular has been working to train and arm the Ukrainian military for the last eight years.
Britain hopes that Western military support will eventually foil the Russian operation in Ukraine. The humanitarian results of prolonging the fighting in the country are not apparently an issue for the West.
It’s worth noting that the Russian military has already captured or destroyed several shipments of Western-supplied weapons. Some of captured Western weapons have already entered service with the armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic.
