Keir Starmer visits Ukraine to sign major deal just days before Donald Trump enters office
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Prime minister’s visit to Kyiv comes amid questions over president-elect’s commitment to continued military assistance of Ukraine. Sir Keir Starmer has declared Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a “monumental strategic failure”, as he travelled to Kyiv to sign a new long-term partnership deal with Volodymyr Zelensky days before Donald Trump is sworn in as president.
The prime minister, visiting Ukraine for the first time since entering No 10, was greeted at the capital’s railway station by the UK’s ambassador to Ukraine, Martin Harris, and Ukraine’s envoy to London, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The 100 Year Partnership includes defence and scientific collaboration but will also forge new community links between the UK and Ukraine.
Sir Keir said the agreement, which will bolster military collaboration on maritime security and will bring together experts in areas including drone technology, showed Putin’s attempts to pull Ukraine away from the West had backfired. The visit comes just days before Mr Trump enters the White House, potentially signalling a shift in US support for Ukraine’s war effort in favour of a push for a peace deal.
There have also been fears that the president-elect could pull out of Nato, after he said he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to members of the alliance who do not pay their fair share. Meanwhile, his pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Wednesday that both the Ukraine and Russia would have to make concessions to end the war.