While Ukraine announced the shooting down of 20 Russian attack drones and two cruise missiles in strikes targeting Kiev and other regions of the country for the third night in a row, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that his country is not an Amazon store for arms supplies, calling on Ukraine to show more gratitude to its allies.
“One light word of caution is, like it or not, people want to see gratitude,” Ben Wallace told British media on the sidelines of the Atlantic Summit in Vilnius. Yes, it is a noble war. Yes, we see that you are fighting it not only for yourselves but also for our freedoms.
Ben Wallace pointed out that he told officials in Kiev after receiving a list of weapons requests from them last year: “I am not an Amazon store.”
But British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ruled out any suggestion that London was disturbed by the intense pressure exerted by President Volodymyr Zelensky during the NATO summit in Vilnius to obtain more weapons.
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded by saying, “He expressed his gratitude for what we have done on several occasions,” denying the existence of any tension in the relationship between Kiev and London.
“I think we have always been grateful to the United Kingdom,” Zelensky added angrily, thanking the British people for their support and their government for their close cooperation. Then he turned to his defense minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, and asked him if he had a problem with Ben Wallace. When the latter denied that, Zelensky added, “Why? Do not offer him if words of gratitude? This is amazing. Please, then, you should call him today.”
On the other hand, explosions were heard in different parts of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and debris of intercepted drones fell on four districts of the Ukrainian capital, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
“In the Podilsky district, while firefighters were working to put out the fire in a residential building, the body of one person was found,” the mayor said on Telegram.
