UK’s PM Sunak urges West to arm Ukraine so it can ‘finish the job’

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged Western allies on Wednesday to continue supplying Ukraine with weapons and military equipment to allow Kyiv to fight off Russia's invasion.

“I say this to our allies, give [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy the tools, the Ukrainians will finish the job,” Sunak said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

He added: “We were the first country to send tanks to Kyiv, now more than 10 others have followed. We were the first country to agree to train Ukrainian pilots, now over a dozen others do too.”

Sunak’s statements come at a time when US aid for Ukraine is in doubt after funding for Kyiv was not included in a last-minute deal to avoid a government shutdown and the subsequent ousting of US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak criticized on Wednesday “Western conservative elites” for positing that military aid to Ukraine should be halted.

“By the way, when any of the representatives of Western conservative elites talk about the need to suspend military aid to Ukraine, I have a direct question: what are your motives? Why are you so insistently against... destroying the Russian army, which has been terrifying democracies for decades, and why are you against drastically reducing Russia's ability to conduct ‘special destructive operations’ in different countries and on different continents?” Podolyak said on X.

He added: “And most importantly, why do you so insistently want Russia to withstand, do some work on its mistakes, reinforce its army, reboot its military-industrial complex and start looking for new opportunities to attack other countries and other – including yours – armies? What is the secret of such an obviously illogical desire not to let the myth of the Russian army die? And how can this ‘suicidal paradox’ be explained to your potential voters?”

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