David Lammy announces £600 million of 'vital' support for Ukraine against Russian attacks
The Foreign Secretary is facing renewed requests, for Western weapons to be used to strike targets within Russia, ITV News International Editor Emma Murphy reports
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has announced £600 million of "vital" support for Ukraine while they "endure relentless Russian attacks”.
The package includes reaffirming Rishi Sunak’s pledge of £242 million and $484 million worth of loan guarantees for World Bank lending before the end of the year.
The loan guarantees are the second deployment of an overall pledge of $3 billion over three years.
Lammy, who is currently in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with his US counterpart Antony Blinken, has said Ukraine will receive additional aid to meet immediate humanitarian, energy and stabilisation needs.
This year's bilateral funding with the US includes £100 million of humanitarian funding which is said to support the most vulnerable Ukrainians.
An additional £40 million will fund recovery and stabilisation efforts, to ensure Ukraine "not only wins the war but can make a head-start on winning the peace," the government said.
A further £20 million will support essential repairs and protection of Ukraine's power network and energy infrastructure.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer committed to providing £3 billion a year in military support to Ukraine for as long as necessary.
Lammy said: "The UK's support to Ukraine is unwavering. Our commitment of over £600 million worth of support is the latest installment in our enduring support to Ukraine.
"This will provide vital support to Ukrainians as they continue to endure relentless Russian attacks."
Lammy and Blinken heard the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy call for “strong decisions” to be made as he repeatedly pushed for permission to use Western missiles to strike at targets within Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Speaking at the International Crimea Platform conference, Zelenskyy said: "I will have a little bit later a talk with him (Blinken) and minister of foreign affairs for the UK. I don’t know all the details of our conversation. I will be ready to be open and honest after these consultations."
“If I am optimistic about their decision to give us permission to use long distance, it is a pity it doesn’t depend on my optimism. It depends on their optimism. Let’s count on some strong decisions on this.
“For us it is very important for today. Anyway, I will tell you after the meeting and anyway I am counting on my dialogue with President Biden this month.”
Speaking at the start of a meeting with Lammy at his office in Kyiv on Wednesday, Denys Shmyhal said: “We hope that long-range equipment for strikes on the territory of our enemy will be reached and we will have it. And we hope for your help and support in this issue.”
When asked if Ukraine will be permitted to use UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles in Russia, Lammy said: "It would, be quite wrong to comment on the detail of operational issues in a forum such as this, because the only person who could benefit is Putin, and we will do nothing to give him any advantage in his illegal invasion."
Zelenskyy will discuss the issue with Starmer and US President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday.
This all comes as Blinken accused Iran of providing Russia with Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles, calling the move a "dramatic escalation" of the war.
Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.
Lammy hailed the Kyiv trip as "the first of its kind in a decade" and compared Russia's attacks to his own ancestors’ experience of being enslaved.
He told a press conference in Kyiv: “Putin’s barbaric actions are the latest example of a very old and evil story.
“One of my ancestors was taken from their home, enslaved, chained on a ship and forced to work for the profit of a foreign empire. He knew only too well what imperialism was.
“No act of authoritarianism is ever exactly the same, but 80 years after Stalin deported the Crimean Tartars, 240 years after Catherine the Great annexed Crimea, (Vladimir) Putin has revealed the same arrogance, the same greed and the same disdain for the rights of others individuals and nations.
“This is imperialism. This is fascism."
Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode…