The UK has signed a £1.6 billion (€2 billion) contract to supply over 5,000 air defense missiles to Ukraine, with production to take place at the Thales weapons plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the deal on Sunday, noting it will create 200 new jobs at the Castlereagh facility. The lightweight-multirole missiles (LMM) can travel at 1.5 times the speed of sound and strike targets more than 6km away, with capabilities to attack enemy vehicles, boats, and drones.
According to The Breaking News, “This will be vital for protecting critical infrastructure now and strengthen Ukraine in securing the peace when it comes because we have to learn from the mistakes of the past,” Starmer said. The contract will be funded through a loan underwritten by United Kingdom Export Finance.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Tánaiste Simon Harris announced he will bring a proposal to Cabinet this week for a €100 million package of non-lethal military support for Ukraine, including armored vehicles for demining and cyber protection measures.
Harris also confirmed plans to introduce draft legislation to amend Ireland’s “triple lock” system for deploying peacekeepers overseas, proposing to increase the number of troops that can be deployed without triggering the full approval process from 12 to 50. He emphasized that these changes “have nothing whatsoever to do with military neutrality” but would prevent “Putin or others having a veto on where our troops go.”