Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to speak at a special session of the United Kingdom Cabinet on Friday, emphasising Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reaffirmation of Britain’s steadfast backing for Ukraine.
Zelensky will be the first official visitor to Downing Street under Starmer’s premiership, and the first foreign leader to address the Cabinet in person since U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1997.
He is expected to brief the ministers on the situation in Ukraine and the need to expand Europe’s defense industrial base, as well as agreeing to a £3.5 billion ($4.5 billion) defense export finance deal with Starmer.
“Ukraine is, and always will be, at the heart of this government’s agenda and so it is only fitting that President Zelensky will make a historic address to my Cabinet.
“Russia’s incremental gains on the battlefield are nothing compared with the collective international support for Ukraine, or the strength of ties between our people,” Starmer said.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Zelensky said he needed “strong support” from Starmer and would push for permission to use British long-range missiles against targets in Russia, particularly locations from which Russian forces were attacking civilian targets in Ukraine.
During last week’s NATO summit, Starmer suggested that Ukraine would be able to use the missiles against Russian targets, but his office later backtracked, saying government policy on the use of the long-range Storm Shadow missiles had not changed.
Zelensky’s visit to Downing Street follows the European Political Community (EPC) summit at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, on Thursday, at which 44 countries and the EU agreed to target Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers seeking to evade sanctions on Russian oil.
