Ukraine and the UK are to deepen their defence cooperation by jointly producing long-range drones, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday after talks with Keir Starmer in Downing Street aimed at forcing Russia to “think about peace”.
Zelenskyy said his main objective was “to save as many lives as possible” and to “stop Russian terror”. Writing on social media, he called for “maximum political and diplomatic coordination” and closer work on “joint defence projects and weapons production”.
Speaking at the Chatham House thinktank, Ukraine’s president said both countries would begin co-producing “long-range drones” soon. He declined to give details, but the drones are likely to be used against strategic military targets inside Russia.
“We will do it together. I’m happy about these strong relations between both of our countries,” he said, thanking the UK, “Keir” and previous governments for their support of Ukraine.
Ukraine is the world’s leading producer of drones, which now dominate the battlefield. Earlier this month Ukraine’s SBU security agency carried out a spectacular covert drone attack on five Russian airbases, destroying around 20 Russian bomber aircraft.
The prime minister and Zelenskyy chatted in the Downing Street garden with Ukrainian troops being trained in the UK. Earlier Ukraine’s president described Russia, Iran and North Korea as a “coalition of murderers”.
He arrived in London hours after the Kremlin launched another big air raid on Kyiv. It involved 352 drones – half of them were Iranian-designed Shaheds – and North Korean ballistic missiles in what Zelenskyy called “a completely cynical strike”.
At least 14 people were killed and five civilian apartment blocks badly damaged. “A large number of drones and missiles were shot down by our air defenders – but not all,” Zelenskyy posted on social media.
“Everyone in countries neighbouring Russia, Iran, and North Korea should be thinking carefully about whether they could protect lives if this coalition of murderers persists and continues spreading their terror.”
Zelenskyy has supported Donald Trump’s missile strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and has accused Tehran of complicity in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year. Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons arsenal in the 1990s in exchange for US, British and Russian security guarantees.
These failed, however, to prevent Vladimir Putin’s 2022 attack. Zelenskyy’s latest trip to the UK was to discuss how to compel Russia to stop its war, Ukrainian officials said.
His previous visit in March followed a disastrous meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump accused him of “gambling with world war three” and the US vice-president, JD Vance, berated him for supposed ingratitude.
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Monday’s discussions encompassed sanctions and the Trump administration, which has so far refused to punish Russia and has practically ended US weapons deliveries to Kyiv. Ukraine has been attempting to keep Washington onside diplomatically, despite its apparent pivot to Moscow.
“We will be negotiating new and powerful steps to increase pressure on Russia for this war and to put an end to the strikes,” Zelenskyy said of his London trip. As well as talks with Starmer, he met King Charles at Windsor Castle.
Zelenskyy will travel to this week’s two-day Nato summit in The Hague and is scheduled to meet the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte. It is unclear if he will have a face-to-face meeting with Trump, who is expected to arrive on Tuesday and push for greater defence spending from Nato member states.
Since Trump’s return to the White House in January, Russia has dramatically stepped up its aerial attacks on Ukraine. It has refused Zelenskyy’s offer of a 30-day ceasefire and continues to target civilians. Monday’s strikes hit a residential area, hospitals and sports infrastructure.
The most severe damage was in Shevchenkivskyi district, where a section of a five-storey apartment building collapsed. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said six people had been killed in the district. Ten others, including a pregnant woman, were rescued from a nearby high-rise that also sustained heavy damage.
Oleksii Pozychaniuk, 29, who lives in the building next to the one struck, said he heard the whistle of a rocket approaching and “froze in terror” before feeling the impact. “Windows blew out, glass was flying everywhere,” he told the Associated Press. “We barely made it downstairs with my child. Everything here was on fire.”