Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is to address an extraordinary meeting of the UK cabinet on Friday as Prime Minister Keir Starmer underlines Britain’s ongoing support for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president will be the first official visitor to Downing Street under Mr Starmer’s premiership and the first foreign leader to address the cabinet in person since former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1997.

He is expected to brief the ministers on the situation in Ukraine and the need to expand Europe’s defence industrial base, as well as agreeing a £3.5 billion ($4.5 billion) defence export finance deal with Mr Starmer.

Mr Starmer said, “Ukraine is, and always will be, at the heart of this government’s agenda and so it is only fitting that President Zelensky will make a historic address to my cabinet.

“Russia’s incremental gains on the battlefield are nothing compared with the collective international support for Ukraine or the strength of ties between our people.”

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Zelensky said he needed “strong support” from Mr Starmer and would push for permission to use British long-range missiles against targets in Russia, particularly locations from which Russian forces were attacking civilian targets in Ukraine.

During last week’s NATO summit, Mr Starmer suggested Ukraine would be able to use the missiles against Russian targets, but his office later backtracked, saying government policy on the use of the long-range Storm Shadow missiles had not changed.

Mr Zelensky’s visit to Downing Street follows the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, on Thursday, at which 44 countries and the EU agreed to target Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers seeking to evade sanctions on Russian oil. 

(dpa/NAN)