Zelensky touches down in UK as Starmer hosts major European summit
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in the United Kingdom as Sir Keir Starmer hosts his first European leader’s summit.
The Ukrainian leader touched down on Thursday for only his third trip to the UK since Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Sir Keir was seen greeting Mr Zelensky in the grand entrance of Blenheim Palace near Oxford, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, where the prime minister is hosting the European Political Community (EPC). The pair exchanged pleasantries before heading inside the building.
Mr Zelensky was earlier welcomed off his plane by the newly-appointed Ukrainian ambassador to the UK Valeriy Zaluzhny, who was formerly the commander-in-chief of the armed forces before the Ukrainian president fired him in February.
Depsite reported animosity between the pair while they were both in office in Kyiv, they were pictured greeting warmly on the tarmac.
Mr Zelensky said Ukraine will “sign an intergovernmental agreement on support for the Ukrainian defense industry, discuss future defense cooperation and the expansion of our defense capabilities” during the summit.
“From the first days of the full-scale invasion, Great Britain was one step ahead in its determination to support Ukraine. This is the kind of determination needed to stop Russian terror,” he wrote on the Telegram messenger app.
Newly-elected Sir Keir is welcoming some 45 heads of government to the EPC at Blenheim Palace to discuss migration, energy security and the threat from Russia as he seeks to restore relations between the UK and its European Union neighbors, four years after their acrimonious divorce.
The government said he’ll tell the EPC gathering that the UK plans to “take a more active and greater convening role on the world stage,” especially by helping Ukraine fight Russia’s invasion and working to crack down on the people-smuggling gangs organizing irregular migration.
“We cannot let the challenges of the recent past define our relationships of the future,” Sir Keir said.
“That is why European security will be at the forefront of this government’s foreign and defense priorities, and why I am focused on seizing this moment to renew our relationship with Europe.”
It was unclear whether Mr Zelensky would attend the summit. It was reported last weekend that there was a “90 per cent” chance of the Ukrainian leader attending the event but little has been heard from Kyiv since Mr Zelensky returned after a trip to Ireland over the weekend on his way back from the Nato summit in Washington.
The meeting is the fourth for the EPC group, a brainchild of French president Emmanual Macron. It was established in 2022 as a forum for countries both inside and outside the 27-nation EU after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shattered Europe’s sense of security. Previous summits have been in the Czech capital Prague; Chisinau, Moldova; and Granada, Spain.
