London Providing Ukraine with Further military support
The United Kingdom announced on Saturday that it will provide six underwater drones to Ukraine to help it defuse Russian mines off its coast, and will train Ukrainian soldiers to use them.
The defense ministry said in a statement that these “light and autonomous devices were designed for use in shallow coastal areas and are capable of operating up to 100 meters below sea level to detect, locate and identify mines… so that the Ukrainian Navy can neutralize them”.
The ministry indicated that “dozens of the Ukrainian Navy will undergo training in the use of these drones in the coming months, and training has already begun for the first batch of them”.
The training will be provided by the United Kingdom and the United States.
The military assistance comes at a time when Russia “is weaponizing food by destroying Ukrainian agriculture and by imposing a blockade on the country’s Black Sea ports to prevent exports,” according to Britain’s Ministry of Defense.
The United Kingdom emphasized that although some ships carrying grain were able to leave Ukraine under the terms of the agreement reached under the auspices of the United Nations, these operations “remain limited due to the underwater mines left by Russian forces along the coast” of the country.
In May, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a £300 million (€355 million) military and humanitarian aid package for Ukraine, following an earlier £450 million plan, which notably included missiles.
