“Your security is our security,” said Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London as he confirmed the UK is accelerating deliveries of more than 5,000 Lightweight Multirole Missiles for Ukraine. For the Thales plant in Belfast, it means sustained work through winter and a fresh signal that the UK intends to keep Ukraine’s air defences supplied.

The Belfast order is already one of the largest single contracts in the site’s history, with the Ministry of Defence saying it supports around 700 existing roles and creates 200 new jobs as production treble‑ramps to meet demand. The deal, first set out in March, underpins a long run of skilled Northern Irish manufacturing feeding directly into frontline defence.

Officials say the schedule is being brought forward again. Earlier this month, the MOD confirmed “hundreds” of missiles had landed in Ukraine five months ahead of plan. Today the Prime Minister added that an extra 140 rounds will arrive ahead of schedule to bolster air defence during the coldest months.

LMM-built in Belfast and already in Ukrainian service-can be launched from land, sea or air and is designed to counter drones and low‑flying threats at short range. The government briefed that the expanded order takes total output past 5,000 units for Kyiv’s air defence network.

The announcement came as leaders met in London for a “Coalition of the Willing” session with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Starmer said the UK last week became “the first country to sanction all of Russia’s oil majors,” a line that follows Britain’s move on Lukoil and Rosneft after earlier measures on Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas. The European Union adopted a 19th sanctions package on Thursday, and Washington targeted Russia’s biggest oil firms a day earlier.

Alongside sanctions, the Prime Minister said he was united with President Trump in calling for the fighting to stop now and for talks to begin from the current line of contact. He added that Vladimir Putin had again rejected recent chances to negotiate, while stepping up strikes on civilian targets and energy sites.

The security backdrop was sharpened by a UK court jailing six men for a Russian‑sponsored arson attack on an East London warehouse storing humanitarian aid and Starlink equipment bound for Ukraine. Police and prosecutors linked the plot to the Wagner network; sentences ranged up to 23 years.

London also wants to “unlock billions” for Kyiv by moving ahead on loans backed by frozen Russian state assets. Ministers have already used revenues from sanctioned assets to fund additional air defence missiles this year, and are pushing partners to expand the approach.

For readers across the North, the defence work isn’t confined to Belfast. MOD figures show Yorkshire and the Humber saw a 30% jump in defence spend in 2024/25 to £1 billion-the highest on record-while the North West accounted for £3.8 billion the previous year. Overall, 68% of defence spending goes outside London and the South East.

The opportunity is clear, but so is the challenge: only 4% of direct MOD spend reached SMEs in 2024/25. Local engineering firms tell us the pipeline is there-electronics, precision machining, composites-but contract access and payment terms matter just as much as press‑conference headlines.

If the winter push holds-missiles arriving early, energy sanctions biting, and frozen‑asset cash starting to flow-the North stands to gain from steady work and apprenticeships tied to real output rather than rhetoric. That’s the measure that will matter on shopfloors from Teesside to the Tyne as Belfast keeps the orders moving.

As Starmer put it, “Ukraine’s future is our future.” For Northern workers whose components travel from benches here to launch rails in Belfast and on to Ukrainian units, that future is being built shift by shift, not in Whitehall but across the country.