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Ukraine war briefing: UK earmarks £200m to prepare for possible Ukraine deployment
British defence minister says money will be spent on vehicle upgrades, communication systems and counter-drone protection, ensuring troops are ready to deploy. What we know on day 1,417
Britain said it was allocating £200m (US$270m) to fund preparations for the possible deployment of troops to Ukraine, after pledging its soldiers this week to a multinational force for the country in the event of a ceasefire. Visiting the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday, British defence minister John Healey said the money would be spent on upgrading vehicles and communication systems and counter-drone protection, as well as ensuring troops are ready to deploy. The announcement follows Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday agreeing to a declaration of intent at a summit of the “coalition of the willing” of Ukraine’s allies, outlining a potential future deployment. Healey said the funding announcement showed the government was “surging investment” into preparations for Ukraine.
Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack, officials said Friday. For only the second time in the nearly 4-year-old war, it used a new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv’s Nato allies. The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile came days after Ukraine and its allies reported major progress toward agreeing on how to defend the country from further Moscow aggression if a US-led peace deal is struck. Russia fired a total of 242 drones and 36 missiles, including the Oreshnik, to hit infrastructure in the western Lviv region and in and around Kyiv, Ukraine said.
Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would be initiating international action in response to the use of the missile, including an urgent meeting of the UN security council and a meeting of the Ukraine-Nato Council. “Such a strike close to EU and Nato border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community. We demand strong responses to Russia’s reckless actions,” he said in a post on X. Zelenskyy said the strike was “demonstrably” close to EU states and warned Ukraine’s neighbours to take note of the dangers: “From the standpoint of the use of medium-range ballistics, this is the same challenge for Warsaw, Bucharest, Budapest, and many other capitals,” he said in his nightly video address. “Everyone should understand it in the same way, and take it equally seriously.”
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany said they spoke about the attack and deemed it “escalatory and unacceptable,” according to a readout of their call released by Keir Starmer’s office on Friday. EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the Oreshnik launch was “meant as a warning to Europe and to the US”. “Putin doesn’t want peace, Russia’s reply to diplomacy is more missiles and destruction,” Kallas wrote on social media. German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who spoke to the leaders of France and Britain, said: “Threatening gestures are intended to instil fear, but they will not work. We stand with Ukraine.” UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns” Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, his spokesperson said Friday.
Ukrainian officials said four people were killed and at least 25 wounded in Kyiv as apartment buildings were struck in the attack. Those killed included an emergency medical aid worker, according to Kyiv city military administration head Tymur Tkachenko. Four doctors and one police officer were injured while responding to the attacks, authorities said.
Zelenskyy said 20 residential buildings in Kyiv had also been damaged, including the Qatari embassy, in one of the largest attacks on the capital for months. Qatar expressed “deep regret” over the embassy hit and said that none of its staff there had been harmed. Russia denied targeting the area around the mission and claimed it was hit by a Ukrainian air defence missile.
Mass heating outages caused by Russian strikes on Kyiv are set to last into the weekend, as the capital’s mayor called on residents to temporarily leave the city with sub-zero temperatures expected to fall even lower. About half of snowy Kyiv’s apartment buildings – nearly 6,000 – were left without heat amid daytime temperatures of about minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 fahrenheit), mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Water supplies also were disrupted.
Ukraine said Friday that Russia had hit two cargo ships off its south coast in the Black Sea, killing a Syrian crew member on board one of the vessels. One of the ships was en route to load grain at the southern port of Chornomorsk, while the other was hit near the port of Odesa while transporting soya beans, restoration minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram.
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© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
