Britain and other Western powers should provide warplanes to Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will say, as she calls for increased defence spending.
Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Liz Truss, is pushing for more Nato spending and arming of Ukraine. Photo: AFP
In a speech in London tomorrow, Truss will argue that the West "must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support" for the country.
Since Russia's invasion, Ukraine has repeatedly asked Western countries to supply heavy armaments such as aeroplanes and tanks.
Nato has provided mostly only lighter weaponry amid fears of escalation.
Truss will tell an audience at Mansion House that "the fate of Ukraine remains in the balance" and that the West "cannot be complacent".
"If Putin succeeds there will be untold further misery across Europe and terrible consequences across the globe. We would never feel safe again," she will claim.
"Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes - digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this."
Truss will also call for a boost in UK defence spending and argue that Nato's target of 2 percent of GDP - which the UK met last year - should be "a floor, not a ceiling".
UK Prime Minster Boris Johnson said today he would be happy for Ukrainian forces to use British-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia to protect themselves.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that, by arming Ukraine, Nato had already effectively "entered into a war with Russia through proxies".
-BBC
