UK to provide Ukraine with 650 missiles as part of £3 billion aid package

Defence Secretary John Healey is expected to announce a £162 million commitment to send 650 short-range missiles to bolster Ukraine’s war effort against Russia when he meets fellow ministers at a summit in Germany.

A meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group will take place on Friday at the United States Air Force base in Ramstein, following a bilateral meeting between Healey and his Kyiv counterpart Rustem Umerov in London earlier this week.

Healey will use the first major outing in his new role to reaffirm the UK government’s £3 billion a year commitment to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s war-torn nation.

Weapons Plant in Belfast

The Thales weapons plant in Belfast has received a significant boost with the latest pledge to Ukraine, with the first batch of Lightweight Multirole Missile (LLM) systems expected to be delivered by the end of this year.

The UK has already provided hundreds of LLMs to Ukraine for air defence against the Russians, with the latest £162 million order expected to energize the supply chain for the future.

Speaking ahead of the summit, Healey said: “This new commitment will give an important boost to Ukraine’s air defences and demonstrates our new government’s commitment to stepping up support for Ukraine.

“In recent days we have seen the tragic cost of Russia’s indiscriminate strikes on Poltava and Lviv. These new UK-made missiles will support Ukraine to defend its people, infrastructure, and territory from [Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] brutal attacks.

“With our international partners today, we will show that we are united for Ukraine. And we will discuss how best we can work together to improve support. Because the security of the UK and Europe starts in Ukraine.”

‘Low Collateral Damage’

Travelling at Mach 1.5 with a range of more than 6km, the LMM is described as highly versatile against a wide range of threats, with its “precision guidance and low collateral damage” making the weapon “optimized for operation in an urban environment,” according to its manufacturers.

A Thales spokesperson said: “As a strategic partner of UK Government, Thales is proud to be working with MoD [Ministry of Defence] to support defending democracy in Ukraine through the provision of our lightweight multirole missile, delivered from our Belfast site.

“Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, UK MoD and Thales have worked in close collaboration to support the Ukrainian effort by delivering key air defence systems at pace.

“We are pleased that this contract is the first to be signed under Task Force Hirst, which has been established to deliver a deeper defense industrial partnership between the UK and Ukraine.”

Long-Range Missiles Denied

Zelensky used his appearance before Cabinet in July to ask Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to “show leadership” and grant Kyiv permission to strike Russian targets with UK-supplied weapons.

The former actor and comedian urged the UK to help with Kyiv’s “long-range capability” as he became the first foreign leader to address the meeting of senior British ministers in person since former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1997.

During a NATO summit just ahead of his meeting with Zelensky, Starmer had suggested Ukraine would be able to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles against Russian targets, but Downing Street later backtracked–saying government policy on the use of such weapons had not changed.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there would be a response if the UK allowed Ukraine to strike Russia in such a way with British weapons.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict began in 2014 when Moscow annexed the Crimean part of Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian military in the Donbas War.

The conflict escalated in February 2022 after Putin launched a wider invasion of Ukraine following the failure of the Minsk accords to bring peace to the region, where both ethnic Russians and Ukrainians live.

PA Media contributed to this report.