UK to send message to Moscow as it outlines higher defence spending
The UK is about to see the biggest increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War as it seeks to send 'a message to Moscow,' the British defence secretary John Healey said on Sunday.
Healey said plans for defence spending will be enough to transform the country's military, though he said he does not expect the number of soldiers – currently at a historic low – to rise until the early 2030s.
The British government aims for defence spending to hit 2.5% of the country's national income by 2027 – with Healey saying plans are still on track to reach this target.
There is 'no doubt' this figure will hit 3% by the 2030s, Healey believes.
Westminster will on Monday respond to a strategic defence review overseen by Healey and former NATO secretary general George Robertson.
This review is expected to be the most consequential since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and make a series of recommendations advising the UK on how it can deal with emerging threats both on the military front and in the cyberspace.
It will reportedly commit £1.5 billion (€1.78 billion) to build six new factories to make munitions to revive the UK's industrial base.
Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine highlighted deficiencies in the West's ability to procure weapons – with UK military officers warning about the nation's low amount of munitions.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
UK demands Abramovich's Chelsea sale funds go to Ukraine war victims
The British government has threatened legal action against Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich to ensure that the £2.5 billion (€2.97bn) proceeds from his sale of Chelsea Football Club reach Ukrainian victims of Russia's all-out war, now in its fourth year. 'The government is determined to see the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine, following Russia's illegal full-scale invasion," Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a joint statement on Tuesday. 'We are deeply frustrated that it has not been possible to reach an agreement on this with Mr Abramovich so far,' they added. 'While the door for negotiations will remain open, we are fully prepared to pursue this through the courts if required, to ensure people suffering in Ukraine can benefit from these proceeds as soon as possible.' Abramovich, who has denied allegations that he is a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was sanctioned in the wake of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The oil and gas tycoon sold Chelsea in May 2022 to a consortium led by US investor Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, after the British government allowed him to part with the club as long as he did not personally benefit from the deal. The £2.5bn net proceeds have been frozen ever since, but still legally belong to Abramovich. They cannot be moved without a licence from the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. Three years after Abramovich sold the London-based club, the UK government has threatened to sue him amid an ongoing dispute about how the money should be spent. While the British government insists that all the money must go to humanitarian causes in Ukraine, Abramovich has said it should be 'for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine', including people in Russia. Since Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK has been one of Kyiv's closest allies. In January, London pledged to give it an extra £4.5bn (€5.34bn) in military support.
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
Schwarzenegger surprises Vienna metro users with climate message
The Austrian Hollywood star is in town for an annual conference he organises on climate change. "Thank you for your commitment to a healthy planet," he says in German in the announcement, broadcast every 30 minutes over the intercom system of all public transport, according to network operator Wiener Linien. He continues in English that "you're all real climate action heroes, helping to unite in action and terminate pollution". Schwarzenegger, 77, launched the summit in his native Austria eight years ago to highlight the challenges of climate change. In his opening speech on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger, who has been an outspoken critic of US President Donald Trump, held back criticism, while calling for "action that makes their (people's) lives better". "I know that the people are sick and tired of the whining and the complaining and the doom and gloom. They want heroes... We have to win the people over," he said. This year, former British prime minister Tony Blair is attending, as well as Austrian Prime Minister Christian Stocker and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen.
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
Ukraine strikes Kerch bridge in Crimea with underwater explosives
Kyiv has hit the Kerch bridge in Crimea — a key piece of Russian infrastructure illegally built by Moscow after its unilateral annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014. Ukraine's Security Service released the video of the attack on Tuesday, showing the explosion underwater. The operation, which took months to plan, was carried out by Ukraine's Security Service and took months to plan. In the official statement on Telegram, the SBU explained how exactly it managed to strike Russia's illegally constructed bridge for the third time since the beginning of Moscow's full-scale invasion. "The operation lasted for several months. SBU agents mined the supports of this illegal construction," the SBU said, adding that "without inflicting any civilian casualties, the first explosive was activated at 4:44 am." The agency added that the bridge's underwater supports were severely damaged as 1,100 kilograms of explosives in TNT equivalent were detonated. The Kerch bridge links Russia and the Ukrainian peninsula and therefore is a critical supply and transport route for Russian forces to the occupied Ukrainian territories, specifically in southern Ukraine. Kyiv has hit the bridge twice previously in October 2022 and July 2023, damaging the bridge severely but not destroying it, as it remained operational. The operation on Tuesday follows Kyiv's daring mass drone attack on Russian strategic aviation on Sunday and has also been personally supervised by SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk. This is a developing story and our journalists are working on further updates. The UK is pressing France to change how it polices small boat crossings, British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said. Her comment in the House of Commons on Monday came after more than 1,100 migrants reached the UK on Saturday — the highest number to have crossed the English Channel in a single day this year. Cooper has faced criticism from opposition politicians, who say that criminal gangs are exploiting a loophole in French law that prevents the authorities there from intervening once migrants are afloat. Conservative MP Chris Philp, who is the shadow home secretary, said the "French prevention rate on land is lamentably under 40%". "The French are not stopping these boats at sea, as the Belgians do," Philps wrote on X. Cooper said the UK government has urged the French authorities to allow police to intervene when migrants are in shallow waters. "The French interior minister and the French cabinet have now agreed their rules need to change," Cooper said in the House of Commons. "A French maritime review is looking at what new operational tactics they will use, and we are urging France to complete this review and implement the changes as swiftly as possible," she added. The British home secretary confirmed that she was in communication with her French counterpart. "There are further discussions underway this week," she said. In February, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he intended to amend French law to allow police to intervene within 300 metres of the coastline. Currently, authorities can only act on the shoreline, unless they are required to intervene to rescue migrants. The maritime prefecture "takes over" once migrants are in water, Sliman Hamzi, a representative of one of France's largest police unions, told TF1 Info. Philp has urged the UK government to adopt a tougher stance if this does not change. A recent deal giving EU fishing vessels access to UK waters until 2038 should be suspended unless "the French agree to stop those small boats at sea", he suggested. In response, Cooper hit out at Philp, who served as an immigration minister in the previous Conservative government. "We won't take lessons from a former immigration minister who let legal migration treble and small boat crossings soar more than tenfold on his watch," she said.
