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The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.

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UK's Lammy aims to secure strongest support for Ukraine

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UK's Lammy aims to secure strongest support for Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha, and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy attend a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sept. 11, 2024 (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Sept. 24 that he is working to ensure Ukraine is in the "strongest position" in its war against Russia ahead of the winter months.

While Lammy refrained from confirming whether the U.K. would authorize Ukraine to use British long-range precision weapons to strike inside Russia, he acknowledged that Iran's supply of ballistic missiles to Moscow has marked a "major escalation."

President Volodymyr Zelensky has long requested permission to use British Storm Shadow missiles and U.S.-made ATACMS to hit targets deeper within Russia. However, U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer postponed a decision during their meeting on Sept. 13.

Lammy, speaking in New York at the U.N. General Assembly, said he didn’t want to grant Russian President Vladimir Putin "any operational advantage," but emphasized that "the most important thing is to put Ukraine in the strongest position" as winter approaches, AFP reported.

The U.K. has consistently voiced strong support for Ukraine and has pledged a total of £12.8 billion (approximately $16.2 billion) in support for the country, which includes £7.8 billion (around $9.9 billion) allocated for military assistance and £5 billion (approximately $6.3 billion) designated for non-military support.

Lammy’s remarks followed his speech at the U.N. Security Council, where he criticized Russia’s actions, accusing Moscow of violating international law and targeting civilian infrastructure.

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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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