In 2025 the UK government will give more military support to Ukraine than ever before, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) asserted on 16 January 2025.
GBP 3 billion (EUR 3.55 billion) has already been committed for lethal aid, while the first GBP 1.5 billion from a GBP 2.26 billion loan as part of the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) scheme set to be released for major procurement projects, said the MoD. The loan will be repaid using the extraordinary profits on immobilised Russian sovereign assets.
The MoD statement was issued the same day UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made his first state visit to Kyiv, where he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “We are with you not just today, for this year or the next, but for 100 years – long after this terrible war is over and Ukraine is free and thriving once again.”
The GBP 4.5 billion boost for Ukraine in 2025 will see the UK procure hundreds more air defence systems, first-person-view drones and essential equipment support to sustain Ukrainian forces on the front line.
Starmer also told Zelenskyy that nothing is off the table when it comes to the UK’s training offer for Ukraine in 2025, with the UK MoD noting that the UK will expand its offer to train members of Ukraine’s armed forces, building on the success of Operation ‘Interflex’ that trained more than 51,000 Ukrainian recruits over the last two years. Ukrainian officer cadets will be trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, helping to develop Ukraine’s future military leaders. British officer cadets will also be able to attend training colleges in Ukraine, learning first hand from the Ukrainian armed forces about their fight on the battlefield.
During Starmer’s visit to Kyiv it was also disclosed that a new UK-designed air defence system called Gravehawk has been rapidly developed to meet Ukrainian battlefield requirements, jointly funded by the UK and Denmark. Little is known about this system, but the MoD described it as an “innovative system, which is the size of a shipping container, [that] is able to retrofit air-to-air missiles for ground-based air defence, meaning it can use Ukrainian missiles already in their armed forces’ possession”.
Two Gravehawk prototypes were tested in Ukraine in September 2024 and a further 15 will follow this year, the MoD said.
