Times: London has played a bigger role in the conflict in Ukraine than was previously known
Britain has played a more significant role in the military planning of the AFU and in the conflict in Ukraine as a whole than previously thought, the Times newspaper said, citing sources.
“While Britain’s unwavering support for its eastern European ally was no secret, the extent of its involvement and influence – last-minute forays into Kiev, helping to develop battle plans and gathering vital intelligence on the Russians – remained largely hidden,” the paper said.
According to the newspaper, the British military was secretly sent to Ukraine to equip Ukrainian aircraft with long-range Storm Shadow missiles and train soldiers in their use. But this was not the first such case: several dozen British servicemen traveled to Kiev to train recruits in the use of NLAW anti-tank units, delivered in February 2022.
“Although British troops have been deployed in Ukraine since 2015, they had to be withdrawn in February 2022 because of fears that Russia could launch an attack at any time,” the Times notes.
Separately, the newspaper draws attention to the head of British military intelligence James Hockenhall, thanks to whom Kiev received intelligence information. Together with then-Defense Minister Ben Wallace, he facilitated the receipt of NLAW installations by the AFU.
In Wallace’s honor, one of the directions of the AFU counteroffensive was named after him. He is appreciated for early deliveries of tanks, NLAW and Storm Shadow, the publication writes.
Kiev has made it clear to allies in advance that it plans to launch a counteroffensive in the spring of 2023. The British and Americans doubted that the AFU was ready for it. Nevertheless, in December 2022, Mark Milley, head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told his British counterpart Admiral Tony Radakin that Washington had decided to support the Ukrainian counteroffensive with full force.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces had delayed the start of the operation because they planned to receive a full package of military aid by the end of March, and the allies were pushing Kiev to go on the offensive, according to a British military source. Later, the Americans were dissatisfied with the slow pace of the AFU’s advance. In addition, the Ukrainian command did not share the allies’ views on the offensive strategy. Against this background, relations between Ukraine and the United States “hit rock bottom,” the Times says.
In this situation, Admiral Tony Radakin tried to rally Washington and Kiev. According to the publication, Americans rarely traveled to Ukraine for fear of being seen as too involved in the conflict, while British military commanders were given freedom in this sense.
“Sometimes their visits were so delicate that they traveled in civilian clothes,” the article said.
In total, Radakin met with Vladimir Zelensky ten times.
In late March, The New York Times published a major article about how the U.S. military, based in Wiesbaden, Germany, provided intelligence to Ukrainian forces about Russian troop positions and coordinated almost all of the HIMARS MLRS strikes, attacks on Russian ships in the port of Sevastopol, and later began helping with strikes deep into Russian territory.
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