U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak makes surprise trip to Kyiv, boosts air defenses
LA TimesBritish Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised 125 antiaircraft guns and other air-defense technology as he made an unannounced visit Saturday — his first — to Ukraine’s snow-blanketed capital for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “You and your people are paying a heavy price in blood.” Speaking through an interpreter, Zelensky said Russian strikes have damaged about half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. “In years to come, we will tell our grandchildren of your story.” He pledged that Britain “will stand with you until Ukraine has won the peace and security it needs and deserves and then we will stand with you as you rebuild your great country.” Sunak also laid flowers at a memorial for the war dead, lighted a candle at a memorial for victims of a deadly Soviet-era famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, and met first responders at a fire station, his office said. “Or rather, the revival of a former one.” On the battlefield, Russian forces launched 10 airstrikes, 10 missile strikes and 42 rocket attacks on Ukraine in the last day, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Saturday.