Reports reaching the desk of Africa Today News, New York has it that Sweden has become the 32nd member of NATO with the handover of documents at a ceremony in Washington, a historic move that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said marked a “strategic debacle” by Russia.
“Good things come to those who wait,” Blinken said as he accepted the accession documents from Sweden’s prime minister, following ratification by the 31 other alliance members.
“I think if you step back and think of where we were three years ago, none of this was foreordained,” Blinken said of Sweden joining NATO.
There is “no clearer example than today of the strategic debacle that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has become for Russia,” he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has concluded plans to supply Ukraine with no fewer than 10,000 drones to aid its fight against Russia’s invasion, the government said Thursday as Defence Secretary Grant Shapps visited Kyiv.
The defence ministry explained that it was spending a further £125 million ($160 million) on “cutting-edge drones”, bringing its overall drone package to Ukraine to £325 million.
The money will deliver more than 10,000 drones for Ukraine’s armed forces throughout the year, a statement read.
Most will be first-person view drones, as well as one-way attack drones, surveillance and maritime drones.
“I am ramping up our commitment to arm Ukraine with cutting-edge new drones coming directly from the UK’s world-leading defence industries,” said Shapps, on his third visit to Ukraine, who met his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov and President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Britain says it has committed more than £7 billion of military support to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022. It has also trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops.