President Volodymyr Zelensky will address government officials at an "extraordinary meeting" of the U.K. Cabinet on July 19, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on July 18.
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. He is also the first official visitor to Downing Street since Starmer took office earlier in July.
"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," Starmer said.
Zelensky will brief Starmer's new Cabinet on ongoing battlefield developments in Ukraine and the need for European countries to outpace Russia in defense production, according to the prime minister's office.
"The Prime Minister is expected to tell President Zelensky tomorrow that the U.K. will go further in the coming months to place a greater stranglehold on Putin's war machine," the announcement said.
The two leaders are also expected to sign a defense export security treaty.
The meeting follows London's announcement of new sanctions targeting Russia's "shadow fleet," vessels used to circumvent Western sanctions and continue trading Russian oil.
Zelensky arrived in the U.K. on July 18. He met with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine's former commander-in-chief and recently appointed ambassador to the U.K., and King Charles.
Dominic Culverwell
(Updated: )
