EKO HOT BLOG reports that the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who is due to visit Latvia on Monday, will confirm the £250m aid package for Kyiv as Ukrainian commanders warned the Kremlin is planning a fresh assault next year.
Downing Street says it will “ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023.”
And Mr Sunak will today (Monday) call on members of the Joint Expeditionary Force – Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway – to maintain military support for Ukraine.
The UK has already provided over 100,000 artillery rounds.
The leaders will discuss future air defence contributions to Ukraine and are expected to bolster intelligence sharing.
They will also consider new ways to protect undersea cables and gas pipelines from possible Russian sabotage attacks and methods to protect countries from Russian cyber attacks.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “From the Arctic Circle to the Isle of Wight, the UK and our European allies have been in lockstep in our response to the invasion of Ukraine, and we remain steadfast in our ambition for peace in Europe once again.
“But to achieve peace, we must deter aggression and our deployments across the region together are vital in ensuring we are able to respond to the gravest of threats.
“I know this Joint Expeditionary Force summit will only underline our close friendships and unwavering support for Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian military could try to reclaim parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia region and push toward the strategic port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.
That would allow Ukraine to cut Russia’s land corridor to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
Mariupol fell to the Russians in May after a nearly three-month siege that left much of it in ruins.
The Ukrainian artillery and rocket systems have concentrated their strikes in Zaporizhzhia, and the military has targeted Russia’s supply lines in the area like it did during a counteroffensive in the neighbouring Kherson region.
In Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops are preparing to hold the line using trench warfare tactics reminiscent of World War I.
And as the battle rages around a mile away, civilians have grown accustomed to their living nightmare.
With so many of the bridges destroyed, people are forced to walk along narrow pontoons. Others are sheltering in the hollowed remains of their homes.
Some have taken the decision to leave as the Russian forces throw huge numbers of forces at the city in a bid to wear down Ukrainian forces.
The city has faced huge artillery barrages, and trench warfare systems have been set up.
Russian military forces on Sunday shelled the centre of Kherson, the major city that Russian soldiers retreated from last month in one of Moscow’s biggest battlefield setbacks in Ukraine.
Three people were wounded in the attacks, said presidential deputy chief of staff Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
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