LONDON

The British government on Friday announced plans to provide renewed military support to the Ukrainian government amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

In a joint meeting with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Store at Downing Street, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson highlighted his support for European nations’ desire to join NATO and the importance of taking a united approach against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

“The Prime Minister welcomed Norway’s defensive support to Ukraine in recent weeks and the leaders agreed to work together to provide much-needed training and equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” a statement from the prime minister’s office said.

“They also agreed on the need for NATO allies to back Ukraine politically, taking a unified approach that avoids giving Putin licence to further twist the knife in the wound of Ukraine,” the statement added.

The two leaders also discussed the urgent need to end Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies and to increase the supply of sustainable energy sources. In this regard, Johnson stressed the importance of the UK-Norway partnership and said there was no limit in the collaboration of the two countries.

Johnson and Store jointly agreed that both NATO and the Nordic region posed no threat to Russia, discounting claims from Putin that his war on Ukraine was a defensive maneuver against NATO aggression in the region.

“In that context, they stressed that Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine and hostility towards neighbouring states was totally unjustified and already proving to be a profound miscalculation,” the statement also noted.

Although Johnson and Store agreed on the need to provide military assistance to Kyiv, no details were provided on what this new military assistance would entail and when it would take place.

Since Russia launched a war on the eastern European country on Feb. 24, the UK government has supplied the Ukrainian government with large amounts of military supplies, including surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank missiles, armored personnel carriers, reconnaissance vehicles, and drones.