UK strikes new heavy weapons deal to send urgent supplies to Zelensky as war tide turns

Estimated read time 2 min read


Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain has purchased and is refurbishing more than 20 long range guns from a Belgian arms firm which it is sending to Ukraine. The heavy weapons fire 155mm rounds.

Mr Wallace, speaking after a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, said: “We are deploying over twenty 155 self propelled guns that we have purchased on the global market, we have refurbished them and they’re starting to go in and they have a much longer range.”

It comes a day after the Defence Secretary announced the UK would soon deliver multiple rocket systems to Ukraine which has called on Western countries to send weapons to help repel Russia’s invasion.

Mr Wallace told reporters in Oslo on Wednesday: “I think it’s imminent, their delivery, and the munition has to go alongside.”

Kyiv has made repeated calls for more heavy weaponry as its troops struggle to defend the Donbas region in the east of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Maliar said on Wednesday her country had only received about 10 percent of the arms it needs.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that his country’s forces have been suffering painful losses, fighting Russian troops in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and the Kharkiv region.

He said Ukraine needed modern, anti-missile weapons now, adding there could be no justification for Western allies to delay the delivery of armaments.

More to follow…





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