UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on Wednesday that the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Sweden had been investing in Ukraine and building up the country's military capabilities before the start of the conflict in February 2022.
"Ultimately culturally it is accepted that Ukraine will join NATO. When that happens is either condition-based... Also, before this invasion, Britain with Sweden, Canada, the United States were investing in Ukraine and building their capabilities," Wallace said at a news conference during the NATO summit in Vilnius.
In 2014-2015, Ukraine negotiated a series of measures with Russia, France and Germany known as the Minsk Agreements aimed at a political resolution of its conflict with its breakaway eastern region of Donbas. In February of this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that he told former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that Kiev never intended to fulfill the Minsk Agreements. Merkel said that the deal had been merely an attempt to give Ukraine time to gain strength ahead of a full-scale military confrontation with Russia.
Western countries have been supplying Ukraine with military aid since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The support evolved from light artillery munitions and training in 2022 to heavier weapons, including tanks, later that year and in 2023. In recent months, Ukraine has been pushing to be supplied with fighter jets. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned against fueling an escalation with further arms deliveries to Kiev.