Feb. 24 (UPI) — Britain announced a new package of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance for Ukraine on Tuesday, the grim fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
The package includes nearly $27 million worth of emergency energy support to protect and repair Ukraine’s energy grid and $7.6 million in humanitarian assistance for frontline communities.
It also includes medical mentoring for Ukrainian clinicians in the war-torn country and helicopter training in Britain for Ukrainian pilots, though both initiatives appear to already be underway.
“This war remains the most critical issue of our age,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement announcing the package.
“It asks the question of whether Ukrainian and European freedom will endure. Our answer, together, is unequivocal. Russia is not winning this war. They will not win this war. Ukraine’s courage continues to hold the line for our shared values, in the face of Putin’s aggression.”
Putin launched the invasion Feb. 24, 2022, claiming it was a special military operation to denazify Ukraine and would only last a few days.
Ukraine has defended itself with the financial backing of allied nations, most notably Britain, the European Union and the United States, though Washington’s support for Kyiv has been largely absent during the second Trump administration, according to data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
The weapons and humanitarian aid pledged for Ukraine over the years are valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars, as Western countries argue Kyiv’s defense is also their own against an aggressive Russia.
Russia has suffered under a massive number of sanctions imposed against it since its war began that have forced it to seek assistance from Iran for drones, China for trade, specifically in energy purchases, and allegedly sanctions evasion and North Korea for weapons and soldiers.
On Tuesday, Starmer is hosting with French President Emmanuel Macron a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, an initiative of allied nations to provide support to Ukraine.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is to be in Kyiv on Tuesday, where Starmer’s office said she is expected to condemn the Kremlin’s so-called Russification tactics of prohibiting Ukrainians in territories of the country it occupies since the invasion from speaking their own language, isolating them from Ukrainian media and arresting demonstrators.
“Today, I’m shining a light on Russia’s disgraceful attempts to erase the Ukrainian identity, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” Cooper said.
According to the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War, Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine, though it seized only 0.8% last year.
“From pumping the education system full of disinformation, deporting and indoctrinating children, to illegally detaining innocent civilians for acts as simple as displaying Ukrainian colors, Russia has proven its ruthless disregard for international law and human rights,” Cooper continued.
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