The United Kingdom will continue to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Ukraine regardless of the results of next year's US election, the country’s newly appointed defense secretary, Grant Shapps, said on Sunday, Paralel.Az reports citing Reuters.

Republicans have been divided in their support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with recent polling to suggest that the majority of Republicans agree that the US should be doing less to help Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.

A CNN poll in August found now a majority of Americans are opposed to authorizing more funding for Ukraine — and among Republicans, the number opposed soars to 71%.

Shapps was asked Sunday what the UK would do if a Republican president was elected and decided to pull US support for Ukraine. He said London’s support to Kyiv was “watertight,” and called the question “speculative.”

“That’s a while down the line before we see what happens in the Republican election, but we will carry on standing shoulder to shoulder with our friends in Ukraine,” Shapps said in an interview on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

“I genuinely believe, as President Zelensky of Ukraine said this week, that actually the Americans see it in their interest, in the world's interest to ensure that Ukraine remains a democratic nation,” he added. “We know what happens when we allow a tyrant to invade a neighbor and then continue westward. And it's absolutely essential that Putin is unable to walk into a democratic neighbor without consequences. And that is why Britain has stood firm and we will continue to do so,” the secretary concluded.