UK to press ‘coalition of willing’ for more long-range missiles for Ukraine

London: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky heads to London Friday for a meeting of its key backers, where Britain’s prime minister has said he will call on Europe to deliver more long-range missiles.

Kyiv’s Western allies have ratcheted up pressure on Moscow as the war enters its fourth winter, with the United States and European Union both announcing new sanctions this week on Russian energy aimed at crippling its war economy.

EU leaders also took steps towards funding Ukraine’s defence for another two years, although they stopped short of greenlighting a mammoth “reparations loan” backed by frozen Russian assets.

On Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will 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.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Netherlands’ Dick Schoof are expected to attend the London summit, with other leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron joining virtually.

Starmer’s call for more missiles comes after Zelensky failed to secure long-range Tomahawks during a recent visit to Washington, despite multiple pleas for the weapons he says Ukraine needs to hit targets deep inside Russia.

The nearly four-year war continues to grind on despite US and European efforts to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, with Moscow battering Ukraine’s energy grid this week in deadly drone and missile attacks.

Starmer will also urge European leaders to “finish the job on Russian sovereign assets to unlock billions of pounds to fund Ukraine’s defences,” according to the Downing Street statement.

It comes a day after EU leaders tasked the European Commission to move ahead with options for funding Ukraine for two more years, leaving the door open for a 140-billion-euro ($162 billion) “reparations loan”.

The EU froze around 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.

But the plan has faced strong objections from Belgium, where the bulk of the frozen Russian assets are held.

The broadly worded conclusions of Thursday’s summit in Brussels - adopted by all member states with the exception of Hungary - did not mention the loan directly, instead inviting the commission “to present, as soon as possible, options for financial support”.

Zelensky nonetheless welcomed the outcome as a signal of “political support” for the notion of using Russian assets to keep Kyiv in the fight.

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.

Zelensky has been pleading for weeks for more long-range weapons, hoping to capitalise on US President Donald Trump’s growing frustration with Putin after a summit in Alaska failed to yield a breakthrough.

But the Ukrainian leader left Washington empty-handed last week as Trump seemed to eye a fresh diplomatic breakthrough on the back of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The United Kingdom and France already supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow and Scalp long-range missiles, while Ukraine also produces its own Flamingo and Neptune missiles.

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.

On Friday, Starmer will also announce the “acceleration” of a programme to manufacture air defence 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 Downing Street statement.