Great Britain, in addition to official supplies of its own weapons to Ukraine around the world, buys Soviet and Russian weapons for further delivery to the Ukrainian military.
What is known about Great Britain's efforts to arm Ukraine
It is noted that the Polish airport in Rzeszów is one of the key centres involved in the supply of weapons from Western partners to Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the criminal war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, the airport in Rzeszów has been surrounded by batteries of Patriot and Sky Saber air defence systems.
Since the occupation army of the Russian Federation achieved specific limited successes in Ukraine, the Western partners began to move more briskly on the issue of providing military support to Kyiv.
The Rzeszów runway served about 100 passenger flights per week.
Now, military and cargo aircraft land there.
Military aviation activity has increased by 167%, and British planes land almost the most actively after planes from the United States.
Another crucial logistics hub is about 1,000 km west of Rzeszów, the German city of Stuttgart.
There, in the premises of the US Army barracks, Western officials and Ukrainian military planners have been collecting, receiving and delivering Kyiv's necessary weapons for the past two years.
Great Britain established this international center at the beginning of the war.
Ukrainian logistics teams efficiently scour databases to find the right weapons while their Western counterparts get to work. When the weapons are located and an allied country agrees to the transfer, the IDCC arranges for transportation by air, land and sea.
According to the publication's British interlocutors, the vast majority of aid to Ukraine from Great Britain goes through two routes.
Over the past two years, millions of ammunition, as well as small arms, long-range missiles and anti-tank weapons, have been transported from the UK to Poland on direct flights.
Heavier weapons, for example, armored cars, tanks, artillery are transported across the English Channel, and then transported by train across Europe.
How UK supplies smuggled Soviet weapons to Ukraine
Part of the UK's bilateral aid is used to buy Russian weapons from around the world.
In some of these deals, the UK effectively acted as a "smuggler", buying the equipment and helping to arrange its transfer to Ukraine.
We were approached by arms dealers, all kinds of middlemen and strange people. The supply of Russian equipment and other supplies from around the world is carried out by many subjects and ways, explains one of the interlocutors of the publication.
British intelligence officers are often involved in these movements, although the country's Ministry of Defence never publicly admits this.
The fact that Ukraine managed to repel the overwhelming, much larger invading forces of the Russian army was made possible in part by the decision of Great Britain to supply it with thousands of anti-tank weapons a month before.
Light anti-tank weapons of the new generation (Nlaws) were devastating for the occupiers.
Slow tank columns were burning.
Since then, the conflict has turned into a war of attrition, with both sides entrenched on a front stretching from Kharkiv to Kherson.
Now, the key to success in effective 21st-century trench warfare is the use of long-range artillery.
According to British defence sources, the weapon system that is helping the Ukrainians the most is the US-developed M270 rocket-propelled artillery system.
The UK is believed to have donated hundreds of Starstreak missiles. They are fired from portable launchers, although the UK also supplied Stormer vehicles which acted as a mobile platform.
In the sky above the battlefield, Starstreak systems shot down many Russian helicopters.
In addition, Britain also sent over 13 million munitions, which is particularly relevant given that Russia, which has reshaped its economy along military lines, now outnumbers munitions production by a ratio of 5 to 1.
