UKRAINIAN president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address Keir Starmer’s Cabinet in a symbolic display of the Prime Minister’s commitment to continuing military help for the country in its war against Russia.
He is expected to agree a new treaty with the Prime Minister which will allow the country to draw on £3.5 billion of export finance.
The UK Government said the money would also help the UK weapons industry and comes on top of the £3bn annual support payment announced at the Nato summit earlier this week which will last “for as long as it takes” to drive Russia out.
Zelenskyy (below) is also expected to brief ministers on the situation on the battlefields of Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin’s troops have made recent advances, while making the case for ramping up Europe’s military-industrial base to outpace Russia.
The Ukrainian president will be the first foreign leader to address the Cabinet since former US president Bill Clinton in 1997.
It comes as part of a reassertion of Western support for Ukraine, which in some quarters is on the wane.
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The US presidential race in particular has caused concern for some Ukraine supporters because many in the Republican Party believe the country must stop spending vast sums aiding the country.
The UK Government on Thursday also announced sanctions on 11 oil tankers which have been found to be transporting Russian oil to evade Britain’s trade embargo on the country.
While the Russian economy has grown since the invasion of Ukraine, the US Treasury estimated that sanctions have cut 5% from the country’s economy it may otherwise have benefitted from over the last two years.
Starmer (below) said: “Ukraine is, and always will be, at the heart of this government’s agenda and so it is only fitting that president Zelenskyy will make a historic address to my Cabinet.
“Russia’s incremental gains on the battlefield are nothing compared with the collective international support for Ukraine, or the strength of ties between our people.
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“And alongside our European partners, we have sent a clear message to those enabling Putin’s attempts to evade sanctions: we will not allow Russia’s shadow fleet, and the dirty money it generates, to flow freely through European waters and put our security at risk.”
The UK Government has taken action against the so-called “shadow fleet”, which use dangerous tactics like turning off their location tracking systems to avoid detection.
This is said to have halted tankers responsible for transporting some 13 million barrels of Russian crude and oil products since January 2023, worth approximately $93m.
