Britain will send 650 Martlet multipurpose missiles to kyiv to support air defense, the first batch should be delivered by the end of this year, the contract amount will be about $213 million, the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
“UK to send 650 LMM missiles under £162m contract to support Ukraine’s air defences” – the statement says.
It is reported that the aid package in the form of Martlet missiles for kyiv will be officially announced by the British Defence Minister. Juan Healy during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday, September 6.
The statement also indicated that the first shipments of artillery shells worth 300 million pounds (about 395 million dollars) from Britain will begin arriving in Ukraine before the end of this year.
The laser-guided Martlet missile (LMM), with a speed of Mach 1.5 and a range of over six kilometres, is being developed by French company Thales Air Defence for the UK. The multipurpose guided missile is designed for use on helicopters, ships, land platforms and also as part of portable anti-aircraft kits. The rocket’s mass is 13 kilograms, its length is 1.3 metres and its diameter is 76 millimetres.
Russia believes that arms supplies to Ukraine interfere with the agreement and directly involve NATO countries in the conflict. Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov He noted that any shipment containing weapons to Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russia. According to him, the United States and NATO are directly involved in the conflict, not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel in Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries. The Kremlin said that pumping Ukraine with Western weapons does not contribute to negotiations and will have a negative effect.
