Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Downing Street on Thursday as he tours European nations seeking support for Ukraine’s resistance against Russia.
The Ukrainian president will meet Sir Keir Starmer and Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, with the Prime Minister expected to underline the UK’s commitment to the defence of Ukraine.
The visit will be Mr Zelensky’s second trip to Number 10 since Sir Keir came to power after he addressed an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet in July.
It also follows a summit meeting with south-eastern European countries in Croatia on Wednesday, during which he signed an agreement with Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic on co-operation between the two countries’ defence industries.
Ahead of Thursday’s visit, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the meeting with Mr Zelensky would involve “broad strategic discussions” on UK and allied support for Ukraine during a “crucial period”, rather than specific decisions.
But the Ukrainian leader is likely to once again press for permission to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russia.
The UK and US have so far stopped short of explicitly giving Kyiv permission to fire Western-supplied missiles at targets within Russia over concerns about further escalating the conflict, but Mr Zelensky has likened his position to having to fight with his hands tied.
Downing Street said on Wednesday that the UK’s position on using Storm Shadow had not changed.
Sir Keir was expected to meet with the leaders of France, Germany and the US at the weekend to discuss Ukraine, but the meeting has been postponed as Joe Biden remains in America to deal with the impact of Hurricane Milton.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel