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UK and US hold urgent talks over Russia's use of Iranian kamikaze drones

Lloyd Austin, US Defense Secretary and Ben Wallace, UK

19 October 2022 03:07 (UTC +04:00)

Ben Wallace flew to Washington for an urgent meeting with his US counterpart on Tuesday to discuss Russia’s use of drones to attack Kyiv, APA reports citing The Telegraph.

The meeting came ahead of a delivery of new Nato systems to shore up Ukraine’s air defences, after two attacks on the Ukrainian capital in a week, killing at least three people.

Ukraine has called for the West to provide it with better defences to stop it being “terrorised” by strikes on civilians using kamikaze drones and missiles.

Iran will send more drones and surface-to-surface missiles to Russia, sources in Tehran told Reuters on Tuesday, adding to the urgency of calls for more weapons.

The Defence Secretary and Lloyd Austin, the US secretary of defence, met at the Pentagon after Mr Wallace cancelled a planned appearance in front of a committee of MPs.

Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, the US Department of Defence press secretary, said they had discussed the “ongoing support to Ukraine by our two nations, as well as the continued importance of transatlantic and regional security cooperation in light of Russia’s attack in Ukraine”.

Tuesday’s summit was described by one source as a “planning meeting” as they prepared to respond to Russia's offensive. Mr Austin is understood to have requested the pair meet in person following a bilateral meeting at a Nato conference in Brussels last week.

At the conference, it was announced that the West would send more rockets and drones to Ukraine in response to a run of attacks by Russia on Kyiv using missiles and kamikaze drones. State-of-the-art advanced medium-range air-to-air missile rockets pledged by Mr Wallace last week can knock cruise missiles out of the sky, while a fleet of drones will be used by Ukraine to gather intelligence from the sky.

Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato Secretary General, said on Tuesday that deliveries of the new air defence systems would begin in the coming days to counter the threat of drones, including the Shahed-136 type supplied by Iran.

A defence source said the Defence Secretary and his US counterpart’s meeting was held to discuss “shared security concerns, including Ukraine”.

It was speculated by another source close to discussions that the meeting had been held in person because of concerns about the security of communications between the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence. But the source also conceded a physical visit would emphasise friendly relations between Britain and America to foreign observers.

”It’s a good reminder that ultimately the US’s closest security partner is the UK,” they said. “The close cooperation we see on Ukraine is why this relationship is so strong.”