LONDON: Seeking to shore up support more than three years into Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a surprise visit to London on Monday, cementing a military co-production deal.
Zelensky met with Starmer at his Downing Street home, after earlier visiting King Charles III at Windsor Castle.
The trip comes on the eve of a NATO summit in The Hague, which Zelensky is due to attend.
Addressing Ukrainian military personnel undergoing training in the UK, Starmer said the pair had had “an excellent bilateral meeting” and agreed on an “industrial military co-production agreement,” which he called “a massive step forward in the contribution that we can continue to make.”
Zelensky, speaking beside Starmer, insisted the deal “will be very strong and will transform both nations,” although no details were released.
After the meeting, Starmer said it was “really a privilege, a pleasure” to welcome Zelensky, calling him “a regular now at Downing Street.”
Starmer told the Ukrainian troops it was “really humbling” to see their “level of professionalism, commitment and bravery.”
More than 50,000 troops have now been trained as part of the international partnership.
Zelensky said the scheme had helped “strengthen our army” and enabled Ukraine to “survive and fight.”
The UK has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters since Russia invaded in early 2022, levelling rounds of sanctions against Moscow and supplying multiple packages of military aid.
Starmer promised the support would continue “for the rest of the conflict” and help put Ukraine in “the strongest possible position” to negotiate a ceasefire.
Zelensky said his country was “very thankful to the UK... for such big support of Ukraine from the very beginning of this war.”
The Ukrainian leader earlier traveled to Windsor Castle, where he “visited The King... and remained to luncheon,” Buckingham Palace said.
Zelensky is expected at the NATO summit in The Hague on Tuesday and Wednesday, where Ukraine’s allies will work “to ensure that Ukraine is in the best possible position as we go into the next stage of this conflict,” according to Starmer.
NATO allies are poised to take a “quantum leap” by hiking defense spending to counter the threat of Russia, Secretary General Mark Rutte said on the eve of the two-day summit.
The alliance’s 32 members will pledge to boost defense expenditure to five percent of gross domestic product, a key demand of President Donald Trump, who has long grumbled that the US pays too much for NATO.
NATO’s members have thrashed out a compromise deal to dedicate at least 3.5 percent of GDP to core military needs by 2035, and 1.5 percent to broader security-related items like cyber-security and infrastructure.
“The defense investment plan that allies will agree in The Hague introduces a new baseline, five percent of GDP to be invested in defense,” Rutte told reporters at a pre-summit news conference.
“This is a quantum leap that is ambitious, historic and fundamental to securing our future.”
UK and Ukraine agree to deepen ties as Zelensky meets Starmer
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UK and Ukraine agree to deepen ties as Zelensky meets Starmer
- Zelensky met with Starmer at his Downing Street home, after earlier visiting King Charles III at Windsor Castle
- The trip comes on the eve of a NATO summit in The Hague, which Zelensky is due to attend
European leaders expected to cement support for Ukraine amid Washington pressure to accept deal
- After Sunday’s talks in Berlin between U.S. envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings
BERLIN: European leaders are expected to cement support for Ukraine Monday as it faces Washington’s pressure to swiftly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal.
After Sunday’s talks in Berlin between U.S. envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings in an effort to secure the continent’s peace and security in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia.
Zelenskyy sat down Sunday with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the German federal chancellery in the hopes of bringing the nearly four-year war to a close.
Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
Zelenskyy on Sunday voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO if the U.S. and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine continued to reject the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia.
Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace.
The Russian president also has cast Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.
Zelenskyy emphasized that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress.
‘Pax Americana’ is over
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”
He warned that Putin’s aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”
“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned during a party conference in Munich.
Macron, meanwhile, vowed Sunday on social platform X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.”
Putin has denied plans to attack any European allies.
