UK's Sunak announces raised defence spending, new Ukraine aid

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Tuesday announced additional funding for Ukraine and pledged to increase Britain's owndefencebudget, during a visit to the Polish capital Warsaw.

Sunak said Britain was giving £500 million ($617 million) in additional military funding for Kyiv as he held talks with Polish premier Donald Tusk and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

Sunak said London would gradually boostdefencespending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2030.

"In a world that is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent," Sunak told reporters in Warsaw.

The increase in spending from 2.3 percent will see the UK become one of the top spenders ondefencein the 32-member NATOdefencealliance after the United States, the British government said.

NATO countries are facing pressure to raisedefenceexpenditure in the face of global threats, particularly from Russia and the possibility of an escalation in the Middle East.

Announcing the move, Sunak spoke of "an axis of authoritarian states", singling out Russia, Iran, North Korea and China.

"I believe we must do more to defend our country, our interests, and our values," Sunak said, adding the increase in spending would be "the biggest strengthening of nationaldefencefor a generation".

It means the UK is expected to spend £87 billion ondefencein 2030-31, an increase of £23 billion over current levels.

Missiles, armoured vehicles

On Tuesday, Sunak also announced £500 million additional funding for Ukraine's war effort against Russia.

Ukraine has for months faced a growing shortage of ammunition, with Europe struggling to provide weaponry as Ukrainian forces get pushed back along the front line.

US lawmakers eased the pressure last weekend by unblocking a $61-billion military aid package for Kyiv following six months of political wrangling.

EUdefenceand foreign ministers insist that Europe must speed up its deliveries of arms to Ukraine.

Germany has answered Kyiv's call in recent days by saying it would send an extra Patriot airdefencesystem to Ukraine.

Stoltenberg said last week that he expected more NATO countries to make announcements on fresh air defences for Kyiv "soon".

During his trip, Sunak announced the UK's "largest-ever single package of equipment" for Ukraine's war effort, including more than 1,600 strike and airdefencemissiles and additional Storm Shadow long-range precision-guided missiles.

He also pledged more than 400 vehicles, including armoured ones, and nearly four million rounds of small arms ammunition.

Sky Shield

Ukraine has asked especially for seven more advanced Patriot systems capable of shooting down Russia's hypersonic missiles -- but is keen to get any help it can.

Six nations in the EU -- Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain -- have the US-designed systems.

Sunak will now travel to Germany where he will meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Wednesday.

The German government has led a push to bolster NATO's air defences in Europe amid Russia's relentless missile strikes on Ukraine.

Berlin has urged allies to buy deterrence systems together and the UK is among some 20 countries to have signed up to Germany's common airdefenceproject, the European Sky Shield Initiative.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen recently warned EU leaders to boostdefencespending.

Brussels is set to come up with more proposals for financing thedefencepush by a summit of EU leaders in June.

It has put forward a 1.5-billion-euro ($1.6-billion) strategy to step updefenceproduction, but officials say this is nowhere near sufficient.