Ukraine Gets Double Boost from NATO Allies

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will end the week having secured two new military aid commitments from NATO allies, though Kyiv is still waiting for a major American package stranded on the Hill by partisan gridlock.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Friday to announce a new cooperation deal with Ukraine as well as some $3.2 billion in fresh funding. A significant portion of that will be dedicated to drones, which have become a key battlefield weapon.

Sunak's latest commitment comes shortly after Zelensky's productive trip to NATO's Baltic states rounded off with a new aid package from Latvia that will include artillery weapons and munitions, as well as a plan to train more Ukrainian troops.

"Our Western allies are determined to provide the necessary military aid because they understand that this year might be difficult and crucial for Ukraine," Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and chair of the body's foreign affairs committee, told Newsweek.

"This package gives us certainty that this year Ukraine will not be left alone no matter what takes place in the U.S. Congress," Merezhko said, noting Kyiv's particular need for "artillery shells, air defense systems, long range missiles."

The frozen U.S. aid package—valued at some $50 billion—dwarfs those being provided by the U.K. and Latvia. But the British-Latvian assistance announced this week includes vital weapons that Kyiv says it needs to make it through a second difficult winter of full-scale war.

The British package will include long-range missiles, air defense, artillery ammunition and elements of maritime security, Sky News reported. Riga, meanwhile, will be providing howitzers, anti-tank defense and air defense systems, helicopters and other equipment, Deutsche Welle said.

Kyiv is in desperate need of good news. The year has begun under the cloud, with its counteroffensive's failure and Russia's most intense aerial bombardments yet. A series of elections in Europe and the U.S. this year look set to bring more "Ukraine-skepticism" to the fore, as populist politicians question the value of a long war against Moscow.

Neither side is willing to downgrade their war goals. Zelensky is committed to liberating all of its territory per its internationally recognized 1991 borders. President Vladimir Putin has said any peace talks must be on the basis of the "new territorial realities" of Russian occupation.

"We don't see any request from Russia," Zelensky told The New York Times of revived negotiations in December. "Not in their rhetoric, not in their action. We just see brazen willingness to kill."

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