KYIV
\nBritish Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised 125 anti-aircraft guns and other air-defense technology as he made an unannounced visit Saturday \u2014 his first \u2014 to Ukraine\u2019s snow-blanketed war-time capital for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
\nThe air-defense package, which Britain valued at 50 million pounds ($60 million), comes as Russia has been pounding Ukraine\u2019s power grid and other key infrastructure from the air, causing widespread blackouts for millions of Ukrainians amid frigid weather.
\nThe package includes radar and other technology to counter Iran-supplied exploding drones that Russia has used against Ukrainian targets. It comes on top of a delivery of more than 1,000 anti-air missiles that Britain announced earlier this month.
\nThe UK has been one of the staunchest Western supporters of Ukraine\u2019s resistance to Russia\u2019s invasion, giving Kyiv 2.3 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) in military aid. Zelensky described the two countries as \u201cthe strongest of allies.\u201d
\nVideo that Zelensky posted showed him greeting Sunak at a presidential palace as snowflakes fell and the two men holding talks.
\n\u201cWith friends like you by our side, we are confident in our victory. Both of our nations know what it means to stand up for freedom,\u201d the Ukrainian leader said on Twitter.
\nFormer UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who stepped down in July amid ethics scandals, won wide praise in Ukraine for his backing and made repeated visits to Kyiv. Sunak is keen to reassure Ukraine\u2019s leaders that there will be no change of stance under his leadership, although when he was UK Treasury chief under Johnson he was considered resistant to demands for higher defense spending.
\n\u201cThe courage of the Ukrainian people is an inspiration to the world,\u201d Sunak said in comments alongside Zelensky in the presidential palace. \u201cIn years to come, we will tell our grandchildren of your story.\u201d
\nHe pledged that Britain \u201cwill stand with you until Ukraine has won the peace and security it needs and deserves and then we will stand with you as you rebuild your great country.\u201d
\nSunak also laid flowers at a memorial for the war dead, lit a candle at a memorial for victims of a deadly Soviet-era famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, and met first responders at a fire station, his office said.
\nSunak said it was \u201cdeeply humbling\u201d to visit Kyiv \u201cand to have the opportunity to meet those who are doing so much, and paying so high a price, to defend the principles of sovereignty and democracy.\u201d
\nOn the battlefield, Russian forces launched 10 airstrikes, 10 missile strikes and 42 rocket attacks on Ukraine in the last day, the General Staff of Ukraine\u2019s armed forces said Saturday.
\nRussia is pressing an offensive in the eastern Donetsk region, and Ukraine reported heavy fighting around the city of Bakhmut, town of Avdiivka and village of Novopavlivka.
\nRussian forces claimed to have repelled a Ukrainian counteroffensive to take back the settlements of Pershotravneve, Kyslivka and Krokhmalne in Ukraine\u2019s northeastern Kharkiv province.
\nUkrainian forces said they killed or wounded scores of Russian soldiers during an attack on the village of Mykhailivka in the southern Kherson region, and the wounded were taken to hospitals in Crimea. The claim could not be independently verified.
\nUkrainian forces also reported they conducted deadly strikes on the \u200b\u200bKinburn Spit in Ukraine\u2019s southern Mykolaiv province, a key site for Russian electronic warfare.
\nRussia kept up its strikes on critical infrastructure, with a rocket attack overnight causing a fire at a key industrial facility in Ukraine\u2019s southern Zaporizhzhia region, according to the region\u2019s chief. Some areas in the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia were left without heating.
\nThe head of Ukraine\u2019s biggest private energy firm told the BBC that Ukrainians who can afford it should consider leaving the country to relieve the pressure on its war-damaged power system.
\n\u201cIf they can find an alternative place to stay for another three or four months, it will be very helpful to the system,\u201d said Maxim Timchenko, chief executive of DTEK. \u201cIf you consume less, then hospitals with injured soldiers will have a guaranteed power supply.\u201d
\nIn Poland, a funeral was held Saturday for one of the two men who died when a missile landed there this week, according to the state news agency PAP.
\nNATO member Poland and the head of the military alliance have both said that the missile strike in an eastern farming region appeared to be unintentional and was probably launched by air defenses in neighboring Ukraine. Russia had been bombarding Ukraine at the time in an attack that savaged its power grid.
\nThe UK Ministry of Defense noted Saturday that Russia on Wednesday conducted its largest ever-debt issuance in a single day, raising $13.6 billion. It said debt issuance is a key mechanism to sustain defense spending, which has increased significantly in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised 125 anti-aircraft guns and other air-defense technology as he made an unannounced visit Saturday \u2014 his first \u2014 to Ukraine\u2019s snow-blanketed war-time capital for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The air-defense package, which Britain valued at 50 million pounds ($60 million), comes as Russia has been pounding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-296257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n