Rishi Sunak to visit Kyiv after announcing rise in UK military aid to Ukraine to £2.5bn

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is visiting Ukraine on Friday to meet his counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as the UK announced it would provide further military aid to the country over the coming year.

The UK has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters since Russia’s invasion and Sunak said Britain would boost its support in the next financial year to £2.5bn , an increase of £200m on the previous two years.

The extra funding would help Ukraine purchase new military drones, including surveillance, long-range strike and sea drones with most of them expected to be manufactured in Britain.

Sunak’s visit comes at a tense moment after after UK and US launched air and missile strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, aimed at halting attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Zelenskiy has pressed allies in the west to provide Ukraine with more support against Russian forces, amid fears that interest in the war is flagging as the war drags on.

The crisis in the Middle East as Israel continues to bombard Gaza has also turned global attention away from Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the country. The UK and US, with support from allies Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, hit at least 60 targets in 16 locations around Yemen overnight on Thursday.

Announcing his visit to Kyiv, Sunak said: “For two years, Ukraine has fought with great courage to repel a brutal Russian invasion. They are still fighting, unfaltering in their determination to defend their country and defend the principles of freedom and democracy.

“I am here today with one message: the UK will also not falter. We will stand with Ukraine, in their darkest hours and in the better times to come.”

Sunak made his first visit to Ukraine in November 2022, weeks after entering No 10.

On Friday, the UK’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, described the military action in Yemen as “an act of self-defence”. He told Times Radio: “Our action and the action of the Americans last night was in self-defence in order to defend against further attacks on our warships as they go about their legal and reasonable business.”