Starmer to push allies on long-range missiles for Ukraine at London summit

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will push allies to provide Ukraine with more long-range missiles to strike Russian targets at a meeting in London on Friday.

He will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky along with the so-called “coalition of the willing”, comprising of more than 20 of Ukraine’s allies who have agreed to provide Kyiv security guarantees once a ceasefire is brokered.

Zelensky has been pleading for weeks for more long-range weapons from the West, a move Russia has warned would escalate the conflict.

Ukraine’s leader is travelling from Brussels, where he met EU leaders on Thursday seeking financial support.

Zelensky arrives off the back of two diplomatic wins this week: US President Donald Trump’s decision to finally apply further sanctions against Russia, and the European Union agreeing to fund a Ukrainian budget hole.

Sir Keir is hoping to maintain the momentum by increasing the pressure on Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.

Among the leaders attending Friday’s summit will be Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Netherlands’ Dick Schoof. Others including French President Emmanuel Macron will join virtually.

Sir Keir will urge leaders to ramp up the provision of long-range weapons after a successful attack on a chemical plant in Bryansk, Russia, using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.

“The only person involved in this conflict who does not want to stop the war is President Putin,” Sir Keir said.

“And his depraved strikes on young children in a nursery this week make that crystal clear,” he added.

Two children were among at least seven killed in a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine, which hit a nursery in the second biggest city Kharkiv.

Sir Keir will also announce 100 additional air defence missiles will be delivered to Ukraine earlier than planned, as outlined in a £1.6bn deal struck between the UK and Ukraine in March.

“Time and again we offer Putin the chance to end his needless invasion, to stop the killing and recall his troops, but he repeatedly rejects those proposals and any chance of peace,” Sir Keir said.

Long-range missiles have become a key demand in Zelensky’s talks with allies.

Trump floated the possibility of the US selling Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, but Zelensky came away empty-handed from a White House meeting last week.

Sir Keir will consult Western allies on how to take Russian oil and gas off the global market.

They will also discuss using frozen Russian assets to provide Ukraine with financial loans, although the plan faced a lack of political consensus and legal hurdles at the Brussels summit on Thursday.

The EU stopped short of agreeing to a proposal to use up to €140bn (£122bn) in frozen Russian assets to financially prop up Ukraine.

However, the leaders agreed to help support Ukraine’s “financial needs” for the next two years.

The US also announced sanctions on Wednesday against Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, as part of efforts to add financial pressure on Moscow to enter ceasefire negotiations.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimea peninsular Moscow annexed in 2014.