U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday said his country would try to help Kyiv receive long-range missiles following his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Mr. Starmer also called on coalition partners to keep pressuring Moscow to end the fighting.
Speaking in a joint press conference with Mr. Zelenskyy, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and NATO head Mark Rutte, Mr. Starmer said negotiations with allies, including the U.S., over the missiles are ongoing.
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown “time after time” that he’s not “serious about peace.”
Mr. Zelenskyy thanked the European leaders for their diplomatic and military support in Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Specifically, he acknowledged the delivery of the U.K.-made Storm Shadow missiles.
“Their goal hasn’t changed; they want to break us,” Mr. Zelenskyy said of Russia. “They want to break Ukraine, and they’re doing everything to achieve that.”
He added that Russia is carrying out a “campaign of terror” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that threatens millions of lives as winter approaches and that only more pressure from Ukraine’s allies can stop.
“Peace is born from pressure on the aggressor. That is what we must continue to do,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.
His meeting with Mr. Starmer comes after the Ukrainian president addressed EU leaders at a conference in Brussels on Thursday. Mr. Zelenskyy used the conference to expand his search for long-range strike capabilities after President Trump declined to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles.
Ukraine has long insisted it needs Tomahawks, which have a range of over 1,300 miles, to strike at Russian energy and military infrastructure behind the lines. Mr. Zelensky told the leaders that long-range strike capability, along with robust sanctions, could force Russia to the negotiating table.
However, Mr. Trump this week expressed concern that selling the missiles would deplete America’s stockpile, plus training Ukrainian troops to fire the weapons would take too long.
Meanwhile, Russia has told Mr. Trump that such a Tomahawk move would impede the peace process.
