Hello and welcome to the Friday episode of the Battleground podcast with me, Patrick Bishop and Saul David.

With the US Congress still dragging its feet over Biden's $61 billion aid package for Ukraine

and one U.S. official warning that Ukraine might lose the war by the summer

if aid from America and the EU comes to an end,

it must have been cheering for Kiev to hear an announcement by David Cameron, the British Foreign Secretary, on Thursday in Paris, that Britain and France would back Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Also in this episode, we'll be looking at what's going on in Gaza, where the Israeli army are making slow progress in their stated mission to eradicate Hamas, while at the same time

attracting growing criticism from its old allies at the number of civilians they're killing.

Returning to Ukraine, the most immediate practical example of Britain's continued support

is a promise to use Royal Navy expertise to help control the Black Sea as part of a 10-year

security pact to be signed in the

coming weeks. The anticipated deal comes after G7 countries signed a declaration on long-term

protection for Ukraine in lieu of NATO membership on the sidelines of a summit of the

military alliance's leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania earlier this year. Around 30 countries, as well as the

EU, are now negotiating individual long-term security pledges for Ukraine, using the framework

agreed in July. On the battlefield, meanwhile, Ukraine's continued operations on the east,

that's the left bank of the Denepro River in Kerson Oblast. But the conditions

there are pretty difficult. According to a series of interviews with Ukrainian military personnel

who were operating there, they've been carrying out drone strikes, which have been suppressing

Russian long-range artillery in the area, which was obviously an immediate objective

of creating bridgeheads, removing the threat from those. And this development, according to the

Institute for the Study of War, may allow Ukrainian forces to operate more freely in rear areas

in West Bank, Kersen Oblast. It adds the withdrawal of tube artillery beyond 25 kilometers

...