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LONDON — The British government announced Tuesday that it will donate a fleet of 13 armored vehicles to Ukraine to support the evacuation of civilians from war-torn areas, and to facilitate the movement of Ukrainian officials and key workers to repair and rebuild the country’s infrastructure.
The vehicles will start to arrive in eastern Ukraine “in the coming days,” along with a logistics team tasked with dispatching them as quickly as possible, Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a statement.
The donation of armored vehicles comes as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first head of state to address Ukraine’s parliament since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, telling lawmakers Tuesday that “Ukraine will win, Ukraine will be free.”
The British leader also announced a package of new military aid worth about $375 million, including heavy drones to lift supplies to Ukrainian forces, electronic warfare equipment and thousands of night-vision devices — the latest sign that the West is ramping up its support for Ukraine’s military, ahead of what U.S. officials have described as a potentially decisive ground battle in the Donbas region.
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Johnson’s speech was met with “standing ovations” in Ukraine’s parliament, according to Ukrainian lawmaker Lesia Vasylenko, who tweeted that she had “never seen this many standing ovations for a single speech.”
Boris Johnson addressing Ukrainian parliament today. I have never seen this many standing ovations for a single speech. #Ukraine is certainly lucky to have a friend like the #UK pic.twitter.com/xZWlCvNDgB
— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) May 3, 2022
But back home, Johnson’s political opponents criticized the aid announcement as too little too late, and accused the embattled British leader of electioneering, as Brits prepare to cast their ballots in local elections Thursday.
Those elections are seen, at least partly, as a referendum on Johnson after multiple domestic scandals. Opinion polls suggest that Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party is set to take heavy losses, and he could do with some good news right about now.
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“This is the right decision but the wrong timing,” said the Liberal Democrats’ Layla Moran. “These additional weapons were desperately needed a week ago when Parliament was still sitting and could have given its full support.”
“Is it possible that Boris Johnson delayed this move to announce it in a difficult election week?” she said. “If so, it would be a deeply cynical thing to do.”
The Foreign Office said in its statement that the 13 armored vehicles Britain plans to donate to Ukraine are worth about $826,000 and come from the Foreign Office’s own fleet. It described them as “highly specialised 4x4s that have been upgraded with armour to resist high velocity bullets, anti-personnel mines and improvised explosive devices,” methods of attack that it said “have been used by Russian forces to slaughter civilians.”
The vehicles — which are reinforced with steel plates, strengthened glass, enhanced suspension and upgraded brakes — will be used to transport civilians in areas of eastern Ukraine ravaged by war, according to the release. They will also be used by Ukraine’s police and national guard, as well as key workers, to repair and rebuild the country’s critical infrastructure, such as railways.
“They will also be used to transport officials from Ukrainian ministries to temporary command posts set up for government work,” the Foreign Office said.
The vehicles will start to arrive in the east of Ukraine in batches in the coming days, “following a direct request from the Ukraine government for safe and resilient transport for civilians,” the Foreign Office said.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the donation of armored vehicles “will help protect innocent Ukrainians attempting to flee Russian shelling and support Ukrainian officials carrying out vital work,” according to the release.
“The intentional targeting of innocent civilians is a war crime,” she added.
The British government has been criticized for welcoming just 27,000 Ukrainian refugees — a fraction of the 5.3 million the United Nations says had left Ukraine as of April 27. Unlike many other European countries, Britain has not waived visa restrictions for Ukrainians fleeing war.
Human rights groups have said Britain’s system for welcoming refugees is plagued by delays and mismanagement, and Johnson has admitted that the nation could have taken in Ukrainian refugees faster.
Johnson has sought to position Britain as a strong player in the conflict, personally visiting Kyiv last month and walking the streets of the capital with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
British officials have expressed support for Ukraine’s right to strike Russian targets with weapons donated by the West, and suggested that they would support an attempt by Ukrainian forces to regain control of Crimea, a strategic peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, citing some of those comments last week, accused Britain of encouraging Kyiv to strike Russia and threatened a “proportional response.”
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