ShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleOttilie MitchellEPADrones have increasingly come to dominate the war in UkraineThe UK is providing 120,000 drones to Ukraine in what the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said is the largest delivery of its kind.
Drones have increasingly come to dominate both sides of the war in Ukraine, which entered its fifth year in February.
Defence Secretary John Healey said the "big boost" comes as "with eyes on the Middle East in recent weeks, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants us to be distracted." Healy is scheduled to co-chair a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Berlin later.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had captured a Russian position using ground-based and aerial drones alone for the first time.
The UK drones announcement follows Zelensky saying US peace negotiators "have no time for Ukraine" because of the war with Iran, AFP reports.
The package will include long-range strike drones, reconnaissance drones, logistics drones and those with maritime capabilities, with many produced by UK-based companies.
Delivery of the "cutting-edge battlefield technology" started this month, the MoD said.
"Ukrainians continue to fight with huge courage and nothing will distract us from continuing to stand with them for as long as it takes to secure peace," Healey said in a statement.
He is set to co-chair a meeting of the 50-nation Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Berlin later alongside Nato Secretary General Rutte and the Ukrainian and German defence ministers.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is also expected to announce further support measures for Ukraine later at a meeting of international finance ministers in Washington DC.
There have been further Russian attacks on Ukraine, after the expiry at the end of Sunday of a supposed ceasefire to mark Orthodox Easter.
Overnight, Ukraine's northern Sumy region saw three separate strikes on an industrial zone of the city including while rescuers worked there, the country's emergency services said.
Russian strikes also hit the south of Odesa, causing fires near in the vicinity of its port.
There have been several rounds of peace talks, with the US acting as a mediator, but the process has been on hold since Donald Trump shifted his focus to the Middle East.
What Kyiv really wants – and has proposed, repeatedly – is a full and stable ceasefire as a first step towards negotiating a lasting end to Russia's invasion.
But Moscow insists on agreeing the peace deal first, prompting accusations from Kyiv that Russia is not serious about ending the fighting.
