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Posted On

19
December
2022

British PM: there cannot and should not be any real talks, until Russia withdraws troops from occupied territories

KYIV. Dec 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, at a meeting of the leaders of the countries belonging to the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), called for increased support for Ukraine and ignoring the false call of the Russian Federation for a ceasefire, which the Russians need to regroup and strengthen their troops.

"The JEF nations, all of us around this table are some of Ukraine’s closest friends and allies. We’ve taken a lead in supporting them thus far and I know we will continue to do so," the press service of the British government quotes the words of Sunak.

According to Sunak, there are three priorities for the next year that need to be taken into account.

‘I think the first is ensuring that we deliver more military aid and that military aid evolves to meet the situation that we are now facing. That means more air defence systems, it means artillery, it means armoured vehicles," he said.

"For our part in the United Kingdom, we have pledged to match or exceed GBP 2.3 billion in aid that we provided this year next year and I would very much hope and encourage others around the table to do whatever they can to continue the strong support," the prime minister said.

"We must be clear that any unilateral call for a ceasefire by Russia is completely meaningless in the current context. I think it would be a false call. It would be used by Russia to regroup, to reinforce their troops and until they have withdrawn from conquered territory, there can and should be no real negotiation," Sunak said.

He also urged to think about what "we would do with regard to security assurances," as the group could play an important role.

"And I think thirdly and lastly, we must continue to focus on degrading Russia’s capability to regroup and to resupply and that means going after its supply chains and removing the international support," Sunak said.

But also the economic consequences for Russia must continue to be severe and in that vein, the new oil price cap that the G7 have instituted and others have followed, he thinks, can be very helpful.

In conclusion, he stated that support for Ukraine would continue.

"And that is first and foremost because their security is our security," he said.

The Joint Expeditionary Force is a coalition created in 2014 at the initiative of the UK, which includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.