Andy Burnham vows UK is ‘with Ukraine 100%’ in first assembly with President Zelensky
Andy Burnham said it was ‘no accident’ that President Zelensky was the first leader he had welcomed since taking office as he sought to reassure Kyiv that Britain’s support would not waver
Andy Burnham welcomed Volodymyr Zelensky to the UK for their first official meetings(Image: ANDY RAIN/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock)
Andy Burnham has pledged the UK is “with Ukraine 100%” as he promised Volodymyr Zelensky to visit soon in their first official meeting.
The Prime Minister said it was “no accident” that Mr Zelensky was the first leader he had welcomed since taking office as he sought to reassure Kyiv that Britain’s support would not waver under his leadership.
Flanked by Ukrainian and British sailors at a naval base in Portsmouth, he said: “It is intended to send a very clear message. We are with Ukraine 100%. I am personally with you 100%, Mr President. I will honour every commitment this country has made to Ukraine in full.”
He went on: “To put it simply, Volodymyr, I want you to know that we’ve got your back, you can count on me and you can count on us. You can count on the UK for as long as it takes.”
Mr Zelensky said the relationship with the UK was stronger than ever, and added: “I thank Andy for his commitment to this partnership and for giving so much attention to defence and to our security.”
The Prime Minister acted swiftly to soothe jitters in Kyiv over the change of leadership in the UK in his first big major on the world stage. Keir Starmer was regarded as a stalwart ally of Ukraine, and played a key role in unifying allies through the Coalition of the Willing. The former PM was handed the Order of Freedom – the highest honour bestowed to a foreigner – on his final visit to Ukraine.
At the start of the meeting, the PM told Mr Zelensky: “I can imagine people in Ukraine might think ‘ok, there’s a change in Britain, does that mean there’s a change in the way Britain thinks about Ukraine?’
“I can assure you, and I can assure them – and this goes across the political parties in Britain, it’s not one believes and one doesn’t – I think the vast majority of people feel the same. We feel the injustice of what you’ve had to go through.”
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Mr Burnham said the meeting had been “very warm”. He added: “I thought I would get on well with him, and I did, we got on very well indeed. And this is going to be a close partnership.
“I intend to visit soon. and we will build this and we will work through the different issues that President Zelensky has, many of which we’ve gone into today.”
During the visit, the two leaders met more than 200 Ukrainian military personnel who have been taking part in Exercise Sea Breeze, a maritime security and counter-mine exercise to prepare for future missions in the Black Sea.
The PM also announced a pact to allow Ukraine to start mass producing UK-designed signal jammers that can incapacitate Russian air defences.
The “Stone Cloak” electronic warfare system is a tablet sized device, designed to block detection of drones it is fitted to.
