UK not to send its warships to expedite Ukrainian grain exports

 Great Britain will not send its fleet to the Black Sea to facilitate Ukrainian grain exports, a reporter with The Guardian quoted British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps as saying on X .

Britain’s defense chief told Dan Sabbagh that he did not expect that the Royal Navy would engage in any patrol efforts in the Black Sea. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph earlier though, Shapps said the British fleet could help defend commercial vessels carrying Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea.

Commenting on a call by his predecessor in the post, Ben Wallace, to give the Kiev regime an extra military aid worth of 2.3 bln pounds ($2.8 bln), the minister said that it was "not time to jump ahead of budgetary processes." In 2022, London committed around 2.3 bln pounds as military aid to Ukraine and the UK was resolved to match that package this year.