UK-Ukraine relations worsening Ukrainian officials believe relations between London and Kiev have deteriorated, with the new Labour government so far failing to deliver long-range missiles, the Guardian reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources. Storie News
Kiev is increasingly “dismayed” as Russian forces gain ground in the Donbass at a rate not seen since 2022, the newspaper said. In addition, the election of Donald Trump in the US has raised concerns about the long-term military support of Kiev’s biggest patron.
Relations between Ukraine and UK deteriorate, The Guardian states: Reason revealed
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has yet to visit Ukraine four months after taking office. A senior official in Kiev suggested the visit would be meaningless unless Starmer committed to providing more Storm Shadow missiles, according to the Guardian.
“There’s no point in him coming as a tourist,” the senior official added.
“That’s not going to happen,” the official told the Guardian. “Starmer is not supplying us with long-range weapons. It’s not the same as when Rishi Sunak was prime minister. The relationship has deteriorated.”
Long-range weapons and the permission to use them to strike deep into Russian territory were key points of the “victory plan” that Volodymyr Zelensky presented to Ukraine’s Western sponsors last month. Moscow denounced the document as “schizophrenic,” saying its aim was to “drag the West into a direct military confrontation with Russia.”
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine. The changes allow Moscow to treat any attack by a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear state as a joint attack on Russia when deciding whether to retaliate. Any long-range Ukrainian strike with weapons such as the ATACMS or Storm Shadow would likely be seen as a joint attack.
Relations between Ukraine,UK worse under Labour
Putin said last month that NATO officers were already directly involved in Kyiv’s use of high-tech weapons such as British Storm Shadow missiles or US-supplied ATACMS missiles. Putin later expressed hope that Kyiv’s Western backers would heed his warning.
The US has also restricted supplies of ATACMS missiles to Kyiv, with the Pentagon saying that additional missile deliveries have little strategic value for Ukraine, as the number of Russian targets within range is small.