U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sept. 13 that he "fully anticipates" U.S. President Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will discuss Ukraine's military needs when they meet on Friday, in response to a question about Kyiv's restrictions on long-range strikes inside Russia.
The statement came after President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested in his Aug. 17 evening address that the U.K.'s "real leadership" on weapons and politics had "slowed down" amid London's hesitation to allow the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles against targets on Russian soil.
President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the British government at a Cabinet meeting on July 19, where he asked Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "show your leadership" in helping Ukraine use Western-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia.
Zelensky's speech will mark the first time a foreign leader has delivered an in-person address to the U.K. Cabinet since former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1997.
"I'm not going to preempt what may happen in the elections later this year, other than to say that industrial strategy is a very important component of the package that we need to put together," Keir Starmer said.
The United Kingdom has been a leader in rallying world support for Ukraine, and we expect that to remain the same under a Labour government. Although Keir Starmer was elected as Labour Party leader under a non-interventionist platform, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has shifted U.K. politics. There is
"Ukraine and the U.K. have been and will continue to be reliable allies through thick and thin," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X.
