British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a new military package for Ukraine that will be paid for using interest generated from frozen Russian assets. London plans to send 350 air defense missiles to Kiev worth just under $100 million.
Speaking at the annual NATO summit, Starmer said, “Russia, not Ukraine, should pay the price for Putin’s barbaric and illegal war. It is only right we use seized Russian assets to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences. The security of Ukraine is vital to our own.”
The package of 350 intercepts for the UK’s Raven system will use 70 million pounds of interest generated from frozen Russian assets. Following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the US and its allies seized over $200 billion in Russian assets. Western countries are now using the interest generated from the frozen assets, as well as seizing some Russian money to pay for arms sent to Ukraine.
The Raven system is a retrofitted air defense system that London developed for Ukraine by repurposing air-to-air missiles to become interceptors. Ukraine will soon have 13 Raven launchers.
Earlier this year, Denmark announced it would use $300 million in Russian interest to build arms production in Ukraine.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the Western attempts to use the frozen Russian funds as theft. “Western countries have now frozen Russian assets and foreign exchange reserves. They are considering the ways to create at least some legal basis in order to finally appropriate them. But despite all the fuss theft will remain theft. It would not go unpunished,” he said.
