U.K. Supplying Air Defense Systems to Ukraine: British Foreign Secretary

A recent statement from the British foreign secretary indicates that the nation will be offering air defense systems to Ukraine as they fend off Russia’s military operation.

QUICK FACTS:
  • British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced Wednesday that the UK will supply air defense systems to Ukraine, CNN reports.
  • The foreign minister said that Russia’s invasion of their neighbor Ukraine is causing “immense pain and suffering,” but that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not making the progress he planned.”
  • Truss also said that the UK is working toward a full ban on Russia from the SWIFT payment system and all the G7 countries ending their use of Russian oil and gas.
  • The UK is not, however, setting up a no-fly zone over evacuation corridors in Ukraine as it would be seen as too aggressive and likely “lead to a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. And that is not what we are looking at,” she said.
BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER’S STATEMENT:
  • “The best way to help protect the skies is through anti-air weaponry, which the UK is now going to be supplying to Ukraine,” Truss said speaking alongside her American counterpart Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.
  • “So we must go further and faster in our response. We must double down on our sanctions,” she added.
  • “We have surprised Putin with our unity and the toughness of our sanctions, hitting the banks, the ships, the planes, the oligarchs, and the oil and gas revenues. And the brave Ukrainian people have surprised him with their determination and their leadership,” Truss said. 
  • “Now is not the time to let up. Putin must fail.”
BACKGROUND:
  • Russia is two weeks into their invasion of Ukraine and according to National Public Radio’s report, a maternity hospital in besieged Mariupol was hit in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called “a direct strike” by Russian forces.
  • The incursion has caused experts to debate what legal practices of war should be condoned by the civilized world, according to The New York Times.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin says he commenced the military operation in Ukraine in order to protect Russians and Ukrainians in Ukraine “who, for eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime.”
  • “To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation,” he said.

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