Burnham met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and chaired his first meeting of the “coalition of the willing,” which was launched by the UK and France under his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer. He stressed that the coalition is doing “everything we can” and called on the US Congress to increase economic pressure on Russia.
The British government plans to hand over to Kyiv the blueprints for British components of the Scalp cruise missile, the French version of the Storm Shadow. This would allow Ukraine to produce the weapon itself in the future. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized the decision and threatened that Russian forces would gather data to destroy potential production sites. Burnham countered: “Who lit the fire? That’s the question, isn’t it?”
At the meeting with France and Ukraine, Burnham said the allies would “dip into our own stocks and help others dip into theirs” to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense. In a joint statement, Burnham, French Emmanuel Macron, and German Friedrich Merz condemned Russia’s “systematic and escalating attacks” on cities, critical infrastructure, and civilians. The European Union (EU) also provided €6.1 billion (£5.2 billion) in military aid to Ukraine.
On Monday, Burnham laid flowers at the graves of Ukrainian soldiers and received an award from Zelensky on behalf of the British people at an Independence Day event. He compared Ukraine’s resistance to Britain’s fight against Nazi Germany: “My nation kept the flame of European freedom alive in the 20th century; you are holding that flame in the 21st century.”
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
