TIG Post

Tag: UK PM Rishi Sunak

  • Johnson requests UK to send fighter jets and tanks to Ukraine

    Johnson requests UK to send fighter jets and tanks to Ukraine

    The UK needs to give Ukrainian troops the extra equipment they need to “defeat Putin and restore peace,” according to former prime minister Boris Johnson.

    Speaking about the military assistance required to aid Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, Mr. Johnson urged Rishi Sunak to give Ukraine more tanks and jets.

    He said: “We have more than 100 Typhoon jets. We have more than 100 Challenger 2 tanks. The best single use for any of these items is to deploy them now for the protection of the Ukrainians—not least because that is how we guarantee our own long-term security.”

    The Tory MP went on to say that the investment would help push Mr Putin back and “make our world safer.”

    “Now is the time to give them exactly what they need to finish the job,” he added.

    Mr Johnson’s call reiterates comments he made during a tour of the US last week in which he called for the West to send F-35s and Typhoons to Kyiv.

    The repeated call also comes in the wake of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech at Westminster Hall today. 

    Mr Zelensky used an address to the parliament to call for more fighter jets and said he wanted a coalition of nations to supply planes.

    However, Mr Sunak continues to resist calls for fighter jets, with the PM’s spokesman saying it would take years to train pilots to fly the jets.

  • UK to soon announce $304m in new military aid for Ukraine

    ‘Hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition’ will be included in the new package, according to Sunak’s office, for use against Russia.

    A new $304 million package of military aid for Ukraine to support its counteroffensive against Russia will be announced by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

    According to a statement from the prime minister’s office released on Monday, the package contains “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery” and is intended to guarantee “a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023.”

    Later on Monday, according to his office, Sunak will make the declaration at a Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) summit in Latvia.

    The JEF summit brings together leaders from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and was called to discuss the “ongoing efforts to counter Russian aggression in the Nordic and Baltic regions”, the statement said.

    At the meeting, Sunak will call on Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts to maintain or exceed 2022 levels of support for Ukraine in 2023.

    “The UK is already Europe’s leading provider of defensive aid to Ukraine, including sending Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and recently, 125 anti-aircraft guns,” the statement added.

    “We have also provided more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition since February, with the deliveries directly linked to successful operations to retake territory in Ukraine.”

    Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the UK has committed some $7.43bn in aid, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a Germany-based group that tracks support for Kyiv.

    The UK is the second-biggest donor nation to Ukraine after the United States, which has pledged some $51bn in humanitarian, financial and military aid, according to the Kiel Institute.

    Sunak’s office said the British leader had updated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the latest aid last week.

    The pair had met in person when Sunak visited Kyiv last month.

    Zelenskyy is meanwhile expected to address the JEF summit in the Latvian capital, Riga, via video link, according to Sunak’s office.

    The JEF meeting will also discuss further air defence support for Ukraine, which has been scrambling to fend off Russian missile attacks on its critical infrastructure, including its power grid, it said.

    Source: Aljazeera.com 

     

     

     

  • COP27: Jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah stops drinking water

    Jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah has stopped drinking water as he steps up his hunger strike to coincide with the start of the COP27 summit, his sister has said.

    Calls for his release escalated after the climate summit opened in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt on Sunday.

    The 40-year-old has consumed just 100 calories for more than 200 days to push Egypt to allow him UK consular access.

    UK PM Rishi Sunak has said he will raise the issue at the COP summit.

    Abdel Fattah, a key activist in the 2011 Arab Spring, is currently serving a five-year sentence for spreading false news.

    His sister, Sanaa Seif, has warned that her brother’s hunger and water strike may mean he could die before the end of the summit.

    Speaking to Sky News, she urged the British government to be “responsible for getting us proof of life”.

    Mr Sunak wrote to Abdel Fattah’s family and said he would raise his imprisonment with the Egyptian government and reply again by the end of the summit.

    He said the activist’s case is “a priority for the British government both as a human rights defender and as a British national”.

    Ms Seif, a 28-year-old human rights activist who has served three prison sentences in Egypt herself on charges that fellow activists condemned as bogus, has been protesting outside the Foreign Office in London along with family members for her brother’s release.

    She expressed concerns that Downing Street’s engagement with the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi would come too late.

    Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said Abdel Fattah “must be released” and warned that he may only have 72 hours to live.

    “Let’s be very clear, we’re running out of time,” she said in Cairo on Sunday. “So if the authorities do not want to end up with a death they should have and could have prevented, they must act now.

    “If they don’t, that death will be in every single discussion in this COP.”

    Sanaa Seif holds a picture of her brother and a placard asking if the UK Government will let her brother die in prison, during the demonstration outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
    IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

    Abdel Fattah’s aunt, Ahdaf Soueif, told the BBC that the summit could be his last chance to be saved and to be released.

    She urged Mr Sunak to secure her nephew’s release.

    “It means we really only have a few days,” she said. “None of us have any reason to believe that the regime will ever let him go.”

    “He has known for a while that he’s had enough, that he cannot live like this. And this is now his opportunity and all of ours really to bring matters to a head.

    “He’s betting on us and on the community inside Egypt that wants him released and on the international community that’s making a noise for him.”

    She said the UK government could use its influence to have him released.

    “This is all in the hands of the British government to facilitate… it would be very difficult for the UK to do business as usual with Egypt unless this case is resolved.

    “And I think if the British government is serious and if Rishi Sunak says this convincingly, Alaa will be on a plane to London.”

    Abdel Fattah played a key role in the protests that toppled the former Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, from power in 2011.

    He has been in jail for nine years and was sentenced to a further five years in 2021 on charges of “broadcasting false news” – a charge human rights groups condemned as spurious.

    He received British citizenship in December 2021 through his London-born mother.

    Human rights groups have said he is one of an estimated 60,000 Egyptian political prisoners and have accused the government in Cairo of trying to “greenwash” its repressive reputation through its hosting of the climate summit.

    The Egyptian government has insisted there are no political prisoners in the country.

    Source: BBC.com