LONDON

Britain pledged Tuesday to send additional military support to Ukraine with tens of thousands of artillery shells by the end of the year. 

"The UK has delivered over 300,000 artillery shells to Ukraine and is committed to delivering tens of thousands more artillery shells this year, the Defence Secretary (Grant Shapps) announced today," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It came as Shapps attended the 15th meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG) at the US Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany, alongside Tony Radakin, chief of the Defence Staff.

Shapps reaffirmed his country's "unwavering commitment" to Ukraine and said Britain has pledged more artillery shells to enable Kyiv to defend itself against "Russia’s unprovoked invasion and to retake illegally occupied territories."

"To ensure Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself as we approach winter, we have also set out how the UK will go further in the coming months in our priority support areas, including air defence and long-range strike capabilities, and training" he added.