£1bn extra for Ukraine as Truss piles pressure on Nato leaders

BRITAIN piled the pressure on its Nato allies to boost defence spending today as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the UK was backing Ukraine for "the long haul".

- David Bond

The appeal from Ms Truss came after Britain pledged a further £1 billion of military support for Kyiv to help it fight Vladimir Putin's invasion, now into its fifth month, taking the total economic and military commitment to Ukraine to £3.8 billion.

Despite a Cabinet row over Britain's own defence spending plans after 2024, the UK is one of nine countries in the 30-member Nato alliance which hit the target of spending two per cent of GDP on defence.

As a crucial summit of Nato leaders drew to a close in Madrid today, Ms Truss urged allies to do more to protect Europe from Russian aggression on its eastern borders, as well as meeting the security challenge posed by China. "What we now need to see is our allies and partners step up," Ms Truss said. "Overall some partners are still not spending two per cent. I see the two per cent as a floor, it's a minimum and we need to make sure that we're all contributing and making sure that the defence and deterrent is much more effective than what we have seen for the past 20 years, which I fear has enabled Putin to carry out this appalling war. We need to make sure that all of the Western alliance is spending on defence and putting more into particularly supporting our eastern allies."