UK to gather 'aid' to arm Ukraine: London

• 

The United Kingdom will hold on Thursday a donor conference to garner more arms to send to Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense said Tuesday.

"The conference will be held on Thursday and will be convened by the Defence Secretary," the ministry said.

Minister Ben Wallace had said during a visit to Norway the conference would "see what else we can gather from around the world" to deter Russia from the Ukrainian arena, and he went on to accuse Moscow of "occup[ying] and inva[ding]" a sovereign country.

The UK has been leading the effort of arming Ukraine, and it said earlier in March that it was preparing to send more portable missile systems to Ukraine to counter Russian tanks and aircraft.

Ukraine will be using the UK's Starstreak missiles - shoulder-mounted missiles characterized by their ability to travel more than three times the speed of sound and designed to take down aircraft.

Britain had participated in the US-led bid to arm Ukraine before the war broke out when the West was scrambling to deliver arms to Ukraine.

Just like fellow NATO member states, the United Kingdom had refused Kiev's requests to establish a no-fly zone over the country, arguing that it would spark a third world war.

The rejection of Ukraine's requests prompted President Volodymyr Zelensky to instead ask for more armament. They complied, and the US and its NATO allies announced that they were sending surface-to-air missile systems to Ukraine, including Soviet-era systems, such as the SA-8 and the SA-12 systems.

Kiev's presidential office itself had made the admission that establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine as Russia's special military operation in the country continues could potentially lead to a direct war between the Russian Federation and NATO.