Zelenskyy to visit Britain in first visit by a foreign leader since Burnham took office
LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham at a naval base in England on Monday, a visit Burnham said is intended to signal the U.K.’s “unwavering” support for Ukraine.
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Zelenskyy’s trip is the first by a foreign leader since Burnham took office a week ago. His predecessor, Keir Starmer, was in Kyiv less than two weeks ago in his last overseas trip before leaving office.
Burnham will be the fifth British prime minister to deal with the Ukrainian president since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve, and we will not back down until we achieve long lasting and just peace for Ukraine,” said Burnham, who has spent the past nine years as mayor of Greater Manchester and has little foreign policy experience.
During the visit, Zelenskyy and Burnham will meet more than 200 Ukrainian military personnel who have spent the past three weeks in Britain. They have been taking part in an exercise aimed at strengthening war-fighting capabilities and countermine measures in the Black Sea, the U.K. government said.
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The U.K. will give Ukraine the intellectual property behind its new “Stone Cloak” electronic warfare system, which blocks drones from being detected, Burnham’s office said.
Ukraine has expanded its campaign of deep strikes with increasingly frequent drone attacks inside Russia that have targeted oil facilities, military factories and, most recently, logistical centers, bringing war home to millions of Russians and raising pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
The raids have shattered Putin’s narrative of the conflict as something that doesn’t affect the lives of ordinary people in his country. But Putin has remained undeterred and Russia has ramped up its aerial campaign, regularly bombarding Ukraine with missiles and drones.
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