LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday announced a new 1.6 billion pound ($2 billion) deal that would allow Ukraine to purchase 5,000 air-defence missiles using export finance.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said Thales will manufacture the lightweight-multirole missiles for Ukraine.

Thales said the missiles have a range of more than 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) and they can be fired from a variety of platforms on land, sea, and air.

"This will be vital for protecting critical infrastructure now and strengthening Ukraine in securing the peace when it comes," Starmer told reporters at a summit in London.

Russia last week launched more than 200 drones in an overnight attack, in what Ukraine said was the largest such attack since the start of the war three years ago.