It's day 541 of the war in Ukraine - welcome back to our live coverage with all the latest updates.

Outgoing defence secretary Ben Wallace has said the IFU 'highlights the unity and resolve of our allies to work together to provide Ukraine with cutting-edge equipment to meet its capability requirements.' The deals have been arranged as part of the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU), which has so far raised over £770m globally to spend on lethal and non-lethal military support for Ukraine. The other two deals are also for air defence, but the defence ministry hasn't given any specific details. It can be quickly deployed and repositioned at a moment's notice. Uncrewed aerial systems are a broad category, covering electronic warfare, guiding artillery, and night operation equipment.Īn example of the equipment the deals will provide is the CORTEX Typhon system, which can be operated by as few as two users. It will pay for vehicle-mounted counter-drone systems for Ukraine to use in order to detect, track, destroy and disrupt Russian UAS. The biggest of the three is a £56m pound contract for uncrewed aerial systems, also called UAS equipment, with Norwegian defence company Kongsberg. The British ministry of defence has signed three contracts worth over £90m to provide Ukraine with air defence equipment. They suggest 'recent Ukrainian advances may be significantly weakening confidence in the Russian defence along the wider front in southern Ukraine', the ISW added.

His comments echoed those made earlier in the year by Wagner paramilitary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, and come after Ukrainian troops managed to liberate the village of Urozhaine in the eastern Donetsk region two days ago. The ISW thinktank, which provides daily analysis of the conflict, said: 'Khodakovsky suggested that Ukraine would be sufficiently weakened in this state of frozen conflict and that Russia would be able to exert more influence over Ukraine in such a situation than it currently can.' He suggested Russia would need to come to a 'truce' and that it would enter a phase of 'neither peace nor war' with Ukraine.īut military analysts have long said a ceasefire along current frontlines would only serve to benefit Russia. The commander of a Russian separatist group said Russia won't be able to topple Ukraine's military in the short-term and called for a freezing of the conflict.Īlexander Khodakovsky, who leads the 'Vostok' battalion, said Russian forces 'are unlikely to easily occupy additional Ukrainian cities', according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

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