British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Thursday with a commitment to help guarantee the country’s security, just days before Donald Trump is sworn in as president of the United States.
According to the British government, Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will sign a partnership treaty in Kyiv that covers defense, research, energy, and trade.
Starmer’s surprise visit to Ukraine is his first since taking office in July.
The UK PM visited the country as opposition leader in 2023 and has met with Zelenskyy twice in London since becoming Prime Minister.
Martin Harris, the UK ambassador to Ukraine, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s envoy to London, received Starmer at the Kyiv railway station.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago, the United Kingdom, one of Ukraine’s main military sponsors, has provided 12.8 billion pounds ($16 billion) in military and humanitarian help, and has trained more than 50,000 Ukrainian troops on British territory.
Starmer is to announce an additional 40 million pounds ($49 million) for Ukraine’s post-war economic rehabilitation.
Kyiv’s allies have rushed to flood Ukraine with as much support as possible before Trump’s inauguration, with the aim of putting Ukraine in the strongest position possible for any future negotiations to end the war.
Zelenskyy has said that in any peace negotiation, Ukraine would need assurances about its future protection from its much bigger neighbour.
Britain says a 100-year pledge is part of that assurance and will help ensure Ukraine is “never again vulnerable to the kind of brutality inflicted on it by Russia,” which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and attempted a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelenskyy says he and Starmer will also examine a plan suggested by French President Emmanuel Macron that would send troops from France and other Western countries in Ukraine to monitor a cease-fire deal.
Moscow is gradually gaining ground at the expense of significant losses along the 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line in eastern Ukraine, as well as launching intense barrages against Ukraine’s energy grid in an attempt to deprive Ukrainians of heat and light during the winter.
A significant Russian ballistic and cruise missile attack on Ukraine’s regions on Wednesday forced authorities to turn off the electrical supply in certain parts.
