Defence secretary warns this is ‘the critical year’ for Ukraine – as £450m in funding allocated
The defence secretary has said that 2025 is “the critical year” for Ukraine as he confirmed £450m in funding for a military support package.
The funding includes £350m from this year’s previously announced pot of £4.5bn in financial support, while the rest of the cash is being provided by Norway via the UK-led International Fund for Ukraine.
The money will fund repairs to and maintenance of UK-provided materials and equipment already given to Ukraine, as well as radar systems, anti-tank mines and hundreds of thousands of drones.
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It was announced on Friday by Defence Secretary John Healey, who is in Brussels chairing a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group alongside his German counterpart Boris Pistorius.
The group is an alliance of about 50 countries – all 32 NATO member states, including the US, and about 20 other nations – that has been supporting Ukraine by sending military equipment there since April 2022, a few weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
John Healey and Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius take part in the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting
Speaking at the start of the meeting, Mr Healey warned: “2025 is the critical year for the war in Ukraine, and this is the critical moment.
“A moment for our defence industries to step up, and they are; a moment for our militaries to step up, and they are; a moment for our governments to step up, and they are.
“Together, we are sending a signal to Russia and we are saying to Ukraine that we stand with you in the fight and we will stand with you in the peace.”
At a news conference following the talks, Mr Healey told journalists that Ukraine’s allies have agreed to provide a “record boost” €21bn (£18.2bn) in total of military support for Kyiv.
The German defence minister confirmed that US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, attended virtually, while special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Moscow, which Mr Pistorius insisted was not a matter of “priorities”, but of “schedules”.
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Healey announces funding for Ukraine
‘Coalition of the willing’ planning continues
The meeting comes one day after the UK defence secretary and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu led 30 defence ministers from the “coalition of the willing” in Brussels.
The group, which does not include the US, discussed operational plans on Thursday afternoon for a multinational peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
Rustem Umerov, Tony Radakin, John Healey and Sebastien Lecornu during the Coalition of the Willing meeting in Brussels.
Pic: Reuters
It looked at each nation’s capabilities and how they could be best used to support Ukraine’s long-term defence and security as part of what the Ministry of Defence called a “reassurance force”.
UK and French military chiefs discussed planning with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military chiefs in Kyiv last weekend.
Peace negotiations are ongoing between the US and Russia, however, US officials appear to be growing increasingly impatient with the lack of progress after Donald Trump publicly suggested a month ago that Vladimir Putin wants to end the war.
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Last Tuesday, the Kremlin described the latest US peace proposal as unacceptable in its current form because it does not solve the “root causes” of the conflict.
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Mr Putin wants to dismantle Ukraine as an independent, functioning state and has demanded Kyiv recognise Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and other partly occupied areas and pull its forces out, as well as a pledge for Ukraine to never join NATO and to demilitarise.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Friday that Mr Trump is not “going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations” with Moscow.
Despite the apparent impasse in talks, the coalition of the willing is continuing with its plans for when peace is agreed.
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Politics
Heidi Alexander says ‘fairness’ will be government’s ‘guiding principle’ when it comes to taxes at next budget
Another hint that tax rises are coming in this autumn’s budget has been given by a senior minister.
Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was asked if Sir Keir Starmer and the rest of the cabinet had discussed hiking taxes in the wake of the government’s failed welfare reforms, which were shot down by their own MPs.
Trevor Phillips asked specifically if tax rises were discussed among the cabinet last week – including on an away day on Friday.
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Tax increases were not discussed “directly”, Ms Alexander said, but ministers were “cognisant” of the challenges facing them.
Asked what this means, Ms Alexander added: “I think your viewers would be surprised if we didn’t recognise that at the budget, the chancellor will need to look at the OBR forecast that is given to her and will make decisions in line with the fiscal rules that she has set out.
“We made a commitment in our manifesto not to be putting up taxes on people on modest incomes, working people. We have stuck to that.”
Ms Alexander said she wouldn’t comment directly on taxes and the budget at this point, adding: “So, the chancellor will set her budget. I’m not going to sit in a TV studio today and speculate on what the contents of that budget might be.
“When it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle.”
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Afterwards, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Phillips: “That sounds to me like a barely disguised reference to tax rises coming in the autumn.”
He then went on to repeat the Conservative attack lines that Labour are “crashing the economy”.
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Chris Philp also criticsed the government’s migration deal with France
Mr Philp then attacked the prime minister as “weak” for being unable to get his welfare reforms through the Commons.
Discussions about potential tax rises have come to the fore after the government had to gut its welfare reforms.
Sir Keir had wanted to change Personal Independence Payments (PIP), but a large Labour rebellion forced him to axe the changes.
With the savings from these proposed changes – around £5bn – already worked into the government’s sums, they will now need to find the money somewhere else.
The general belief is that this will take the form of tax rises, rather than spending cuts, with more money needed for military spending commitments, as well as other areas of priority for the government, such as the NHS.
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