Britain will provide Ukraine with more than 10,000 drones to help it resist Russia’s invasion, the government announced Thursday as Defence Secretary Grant Shapps visited Kyiv.
The defence ministry announced that it would spend an additional £125 million ($160 million) on “cutting-edge drones,” bringing the total drone package to Ukraine to £325 million.
The funds will be used to provide more than 10,000 drones to Ukraine’s armed forces this year, according to a statement.
The majority of drones will be first-person vision, but there will also be one-way attack, surveillance, and maritime drones.
“I am ramping up our commitment to arm Ukraine with cutting-edge new drones coming directly from the UK’s world-leading defence industries,” said Shapps, who was in Ukraine for the third time and met with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov and President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Britain claims to have committed more than £7 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. It has also trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers.
It was the first country to offer longer-range weapons to the Ukrainian military, declaring in May that it would send air-launched Storm Shadow missiles.
According to the defense ministry, Ukrainian military have utilized several types of drones in the war, “destroying and damaging thousands of pieces of Russian equipment and vehicles”.
Kyiv, facing a manpower and weaponry scarcity, is currently on the back foot in the confrontation with Russia, despite recent front-line fighting advances.