Zelenskyy Downing Street visit: UK pledges more Ukraine support

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due at Downing Street on Wednesday 14 October for talks with Prime Minister Andy Burnham, as the UK pledges to speed up missile deliveries and presses allies to do more for Ukraine. The Zelenskyy Downing Street visit coincides with a £45 million package of surface-to-air missiles and a call for partners to follow the UK on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG). The government said its support would last “for as long as it takes”.

Zelenskyy meets UK Prime Minister as Russian strikes intensify

In a statement released ahead of the meeting, Mr Burnham said: “My message to the Ukrainian people could not be clearer, we are with you for as long as it takes, and we will go further and faster in our support to back your courageous fight for peace in Europe.” He added that backing Ukraine was “not just the right thing to do, but it’s the necessary thing to do”.

The two men have met in person before since Mr Burnham took office in July, according to The Guardian at a naval base in Portsmouth and in Kyiv in August. Mr Burnham has also referred to a more recent meeting in New York. They spoke by phone on 10 October, when, according to Downing Street, they agreed to meet in person within days and discussed an immediate energy ceasefire.

Mr Burnham told the Commons on 12 October that Russian strikes had intensified since they met in New York three weeks earlier. He said new UK sanctions meant over 90% of Russia’s oil producing capacity was now covered, and that Mr Zelenskyy had assured him Ukraine would implement a reciprocal energy ceasefire once a start date was confirmed. The Guardian reported that Mr Zelenskyy said the US ceasefire announcement “was news to him”.

Ukraine military aid UK pledge: what the figures show

The government said the £45 million package covers surface-to-air missile deliveries, and that £10 million of it will be accelerated to meet Ukraine’s most urgent winter needs. That is about 22% of the new package arriving early. The UK has already committed £1.6 billion to deliver more than 5,000 British Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMMs) over the next four years.

Dividing £1.6 billion by 5,000 gives roughly £320,000 a missile. That is our own arithmetic, and the real unit cost may differ because the package may cover more than the missiles alone.

The government said LMMs have proved extremely effective against a newer generation of jet-powered drones. These fly faster and higher than propeller-driven Shaheds, making them harder to detect and shoot down, and are being used to strike far beyond the front lines, including Kyiv.

What happens next for UK support for Ukraine

The talks take place on Wednesday morning. Mr Burnham has asked ministers to draw up further sanctions, military aid and fiscal packages to provide urgent support “in the coming weeks”. The government has not said what those packages will contain or what they will cost, so those details are still to come.

Meanwhile, Chancellor John Healey is using meetings at the International Monetary Fund in Bangkok to urge partners to adopt an equivalent ban on Russian LNG maritime services. The UK has committed to its own ban, which the government says would restrict Russia’s access to British shipping and insurance. The Foreign Secretary made the same case to partners at the Warsaw Security Forum on Tuesday.

Mr Healey said: “I urge partners to back the ban on Russian LNG, like we have done in the UK, to curtail the war chest funding Putin so desperately wants.” A start date for the energy ceasefire announced by President Trump has yet to be confirmed, and Mr Burnham told MPs he would discuss it further with Mr Zelenskyy in the coming days.