LONDON – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will urge European leaders to boost long-range missile supplies to Kyiv at a London summit, scheduled Friday, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was set to attend.
Starmer is expected to call on allies to “step up the gifting of long-range capabilities to ensure Ukraine can build on its success of this week,” his office said in a statement ahead of the meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing.”
In related developments, in New York, oil prices jumped more than five percent Thursday (Friday Manila time) after US President Donald Trump targeted Russia’s key oil industry with new sanctions in a bid to end the war in Ukraine.
The surge in crude prices came as major US equity indices rebounded from the prior day’s pullback after the White House confirmed a plan for Trump to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week to discuss trade.
Trump on Wednesday announced new sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, saying his peace talks with President Vladimir Putin were not going “anywhere.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Netherlands’ Dick Schoof are also expected to attend the summit in London, with other leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron joining virtually.
It comes a day after Zelenskyy urged European counterparts to agree to a new loan using Russian frozen assets at a Brussels summit on Wednesday.
Kyiv’s western allies this week ratcheted up the pressure on Russia as the war in Ukraine enters its fourth winter, with the United States announcing biting sanctions against Russian oil.
The European Union also announced a complete ban on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports by the end of 2026 in a new sanctions package on Thursday.
Alongside increasing oil and gas sanctions, Starmer will call on European leaders to “finish the job on Russian sovereign assets to unlock billions of pounds to fund Ukraine’s defenses,” according to the Downing Street statement. AFP
His call for boosting defense supplies comes as Zelenskyy failed to secure long-range Tomahawks during a recent visit to Washington, despite multiple pleas for the missiles he says Ukraine needs to hit targets deep within Russian territory.
The UK and France already supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow and Scalp long-range missiles, and Ukraine also produces its own Flamingo and Neptune strike drones.
Kyiv is particularly keen to get the German equivalent Taurus missiles, a move which Berlin has long resisted over fears that it would cause tensions with Russia to further escalate.
Starmer will also announce the “acceleration” of a program to manufacture air defense missiles, which aims to supply Ukraine with more than 5,000 such weapons.
Around 140 “lightweight-multirole missiles” will be delivered to Ukraine this winter, according to the statement.
EU leaders also tasked the European Commission to move ahead with options for funding Ukraine for two more years, leaving the door open for a mammoth loan using frozen Russian assets.
In broadly-worded conclusions adopted after marathon talks in Brussels, EU leaders stopped short of greenlighting plans for the 140-billion-euro ($162-billion) “reparations loan” — pushing that crunch decision to December.
But diplomats said the text was a step towards a potential agreement — though it was watered down in the face of strong objections from Belgium, where the bulk of the Russian central bank funds frozen after the 2022 invasion are held.
European Council President Antonio Costa said the bloc had “committed to ensure that Ukraine’s financial needs will be covered for the next two years”.
“Russia should take good note of this: Ukraine will have the financial resources it needs to defend itself,” he told a news conference.
The EU froze some 200 billion euros of Russian central bank assets after Moscow’s tanks rolled into Ukraine, and the European Commission has proposed using the funds to provide a huge loan to Kyiv — without seizing them outright.
Speaking beside Costa, Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said there was still tough work ahead on the complex proposal.
“We agreed on the ‘What’ — that is, the reparations loan — and we have to work on the ‘How,’ how we make it possible,” she said.
Zelenskyy, in Brussels to shore up European support, welcomed the summit outcome as a signal of “political support” for the notion of using Russian assets to keep Kyiv in the fight.
The vast majority of the Russian funds is held in international deposit organization Euroclear, based in Belgium — the most vocal skeptic of a plan it fears could open it up to costly legal challenges from Russia.
The Brussels talks were focused largely on addressing those concerns.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever repeated demands for guarantees from all EU countries that they share the risk if Russia sues, and said other countries must also tap Moscow’s assets on their territory — threatening otherwise to block the plan.
“I’m only poor little Belgium, the only thing I can do is point out where the problems are and to gently ask solutions for the essential problem,” De Wever told reporters after the talks.
Belgium has not been alone however in raising concerns.
French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the plan “raises judicial questions, and questions over risk sharing” — while also saying it remained the best option for shoring up Ukraine these next two years.
The summit conclusions — adopted by all member states with the exception of Hungary, seen as Russia’s closest ally in the 27-nation bloc — did not mention the loan directly, instead inviting the commission “to present, as soon as possible, options for financial support”.
Still, a European diplomat described it as “a great success.”
Another diplomat said the compromise wording “does not close but does not rush” the sensitive matter of using Russian assets for Ukraine.
The EU talks were taking place a day after the bloc agreed a 19th package of sanctions on Russia and US President Donald Trump hit Moscow with sanctions on two oil majors, Rosneft and Lukoil.
Zelenskyy hailed the US sanctions as sending a “strong and much-needed message” to Russia — whose leader Vladimir Putin hit back insisting they would not significantly damage the country’s economy.
“Good, I’m glad he feels that way,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about Putin’s response. “I’ll let you know about it in six months from now. Let’s see how it all works out.”
The US measures represent a major stepping up of its actions against Russia and reflect Trump’s frustration at being unable to persuade Putin to end the conflict despite what he calls his personal chemistry with the Kremlin chief.
Zelenskyy said he hoped Trump’s shift on sanctions would also herald a change of mind on giving Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles — after Kyiv came away from a meeting in Washington empty-handed last week.
The EU sanctions package meanwhile saw the bloc bring forward a ban on the import of liquefied natural gas from Russia by a year to the start of 2027, and blacklist more than 100 extra tankers from Moscow’s so-called “shadow fleet” of aging oil vessels. AFP
