Ukraine disappointed with UK over its reluctance to give weapons – The Guardian

The Ukrainian government believes its relationship with the UK government has deteriorated owing to new Prime Minister Keir Starmer's reluctance to provide Kyiv with long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

Source: The Guardian, as reported by European Pravda 

Details: According to the Guardian, Kyiv's dissatisfaction with the UK government stems from a discussion between Starmer and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during an October meeting.

Zelenskyy delivered his Victory Plan, but according to a Guardian source in Kyiv, it met with "no big response". The source implied that Starmer was unwilling to make strategic decisions without US approval, although the Prime Minister denied this privately.

The Guardian says Ukraine's principal complaint is that the UK has not provided any additional Storm Shadow missiles since Labour took office.

Quote: "It isn’t happening. Starmer isn’t giving us long-range weapons. The situation is not the same as when Rishi Sunak was prime minister. The relationship has got worse," an anonymous Ukrainian official told the Guardian.

Zelenskyy expressed his concerns during a meeting with Starmer at the European Political Community summit on 7 November, but sources in Kyiv said the discussion resulted in "no progress at all" in supplying Storm Shadows.

The Guardian’s sources say the "missile issue" is the reason that Starmer has not yet visited Ukraine since taking office as prime minister.

"We have been discussing since August a possible visit by Starmer. Various dates have come and gone. Starmer has postponed several times. There’s no point in his coming as a tourist. At the moment he’s not willing to take the decisions which are necessary," the official said.

The United Kingdom is the third-largest donor of military equipment to Kyiv after the United States and Germany, and has supplied or pledged £12.8 billion in aid to Ukraine since 2022.

In October, it was revealed that the UK military command was considering sending troops to Ukraine’s west to train recruits.

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