UK PM Keir Starmer to push allies on long-range missiles for Ukraine at London summit | BBC News

Prime Minister Sikir Starmer will call on allies to provide more long-range weapons to Ukraine when he hosts a high-level meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing in the next few hours here in London. The group, which comprises 33 nations, including the UK and France, will set up to strengthen Ukraine's defences and to provide security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire. Ukraine's leader, President Zelensky, is travelling to London from Brussels, where European Union leaders agreed to help support Ukraine's financial needs for the next two years. Meanwhile, two Russian planes from the Kaliningrad enclave briefly entered Lithuanian airspace on Thursday. That is according to the Lithuanian military. Spanish NATO aircraft were scrambled in response to the violation. Well, let's speak now to Alexander Hara, former advisor to Ukraine's Ministry of Defence and now Director of the Centre for Defence Strategies, who joins me from Kyiv. Hello to you, thank you very much for speaking to us here on BBC News. So the Coalition of the Willing, how high will expectations be from President Zelensky that something concrete is going to come out of the meeting today? First of all, we highly appreciate what the United Kingdom has been doing ever since the Russians invaded Ukraine back in 2014, and consequent governments were supporting Ukraine in various ways. And certainly in 2022, the UK played a major role in gathering a coalition that supports Ukraine in this fight against Russia. I don't put much hope into the Coalition of the Willing, because I believe the whole idea is a great idea. But with the point that this contingent will be deployed after there is a ceasefire or peace in Ukraine means that it may never happen, because Russians are not willing to stop this war. But if you're talking about practicalities, certainly it's a good thing that the long-range missiles, supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine will be discussed, because it's something that we badly need to degrade Russia's warfighting capabilities and to degrade their energy infrastructure and push Russians to stop this war. Yeah, I mean, there must have been disappointment last week when President Zelensky went to the White House. The expectation was that the Tomahawk missiles would be forthcoming from the US. That didn't happen. So what's the alternative in terms of what the European Union can do or the Coalition of the Willing can do? Well, unfortunately, our European partners do not possess long-range missiles as they would like to have, because the INF Treaty that actually the United States withdrew from in 2019 didn't allow the United States, Europeans and Ukraine, actually, to produce land-based long-range missiles. But what the European partners have in their possessions, the missiles like TORUS and the German government has been suggesting that it's possible to supply them to Ukraine. And with Scalp missiles, Storm Shadow, the British-made missiles, there would be more success of Ukrainian armed forces in fending off the Russians. And I believe it's important to get those, and particularly German missiles, with the aim to isolate Crimea. Crimea is the center of gravity of this war. We cannot liberate it with the land forces, because there is an asymmetry in manpower. But we can make Crimea like an island, and it will pose a huge political dilemma for Putin, and it may bring him to think to stop this aggression. What immediately would help Ukraine? We hear a lot about the drones, the use of Russian drones. Are they the key attack method at the moment? Is that what's causing the most damage? Well, yes. But there are several, let's say, domains. The front line in the east, and the Russians have some advantages there. And because of all the mass, they disregard the number of casualties on their side, and they're trying to advance even on tactically unimportant places. But they want to project the power, and they project an image that nothing can stop them. The other thing is the daily bombardment of Ukrainian cities and Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, and particularly energy generation infrastructure. For example, now I use the lithium battery to power my laptop, my Wi-Fi, and lighting here, and there is a blackout in my part of the city, so we adjusted to the Russian bombardments. But it's something that is damaging the Ukrainian economy and the lives of civilians. And the other thing that is really important is our ability to target deep into Russia their energy infrastructure, production of drones and missiles and other military objects. That's why we need the Western missiles, and Tamagot missiles would be really, really helpful here. But we need components and technologies for our home-grown production. We can produce cheaper and faster than our European and American partners, and we need those missiles and drones en masse to coerce Putin to negotiations or to have a pause in this war. You said when we first spoke to you, we were talking about the coalition of the willing, and you rightly point out that one of their aims is to talk about how Ukraine can be supported. That must still seem like a very long way off. Well, yes, but what the coalition of the willing may do, and we've been asking for that for a couple of years, is protect our skies. So the Western capabilities like jets and air defence systems may protect at least half of Ukraine or the Dnipro river that cuts Ukraine into halves. And it's possible to do without any prospects of direct clash between NATO or coalition of willing partners against Russians, because Russian missiles and drones do not have the military personnel in them, and that's why shutting them down would not cause the war between NATO and Europe. It's something that is possible to do. The other thing that is possible to do is deploy trainers, the military trainers to Ukraine, that they can train Ukrainian troops to fight the modern warfare, with cutting the expenses on transferring huge amount of Ukrainians to the foreign countries and training them there. The other thing that our partners can help is to help our command and control structures to jointly plan operations, and there are some good instances and there is a success story, particularly with the United Kingdom, they've been helpful to us. And there are many other technical things like sharing intelligence. I can name many, many other instances where the deployment of coalition of willing, not en masse, not those who will be entrenched in the east and fighting against Russians, but helping the Ukrainian defence forces to build up their capabilities. And one of the issues on the table as well that's likely to be talked about today is the issue of money and whether frozen Russian assets should be unfrozen and the money used to help Ukraine. All of this stuff that you're talking about costs a lot of money, so Ukraine really does need that funding as well. Well, you're absolutely right, because Russia should pay for their war of aggression against Ukraine, and not just Ukraine. They've been at war with Europe. It's a problem that European societies and governments do not want to acknowledge that and to react properly. And I'm talking about the different types of warfare. It's cyber, it's cutting the cables, it's political involvement in campaigns in Europe and elsewhere. Now in the United Kingdom, there is an investigation of alleged participation of Russian intelligence and money, helping to bring the United Kingdom out of the European Union. And the Russians are actively engaged in elections in other countries as well, not to mention acts of sabotage, killing on the particularly in Britain, you have the case of Litvinenko and attempt to point Skripals, intelligence gathering, and many, many other things, not to mention the incursion into the airspace of NATO. Fortunately, now Poland and other countries are ready to shut down Russian drones and missiles that are violating their airspace. And I hope they will be shutting down Russian jets as well. This is the only way how to show Russia that it cannot, let's say, it cannot intimidate NATO and show that Article 5 doesn't work. So all these things are really important. And talking about money, yes, we would love to see Europeans and particularly Belgium to provide us with these frozen Russian assets. And they should understand that this is not a peacetime for Europe. It's already the phase zero of the Russian aggression against Europe. And it's possible not in five years when Russia will be able to reconstitute its land forces and other parts of the military, but they can do it right now. The only goal for Russia is to show that Article 5 doesn't work. And for that, they don't need to have a mask. Alexander, we will have to leave it there. It's really good to talk to you and hear your thoughts on that meeting today. Alexander Khara, their former advisor to Ukraine's Ministry of Defence. Well, let's speak now to our correspondent in Kyiv, John Sudworth. John, hello to you. We were just listening there to the Ukraine's former advisor to the Ministry of Defence really talking there about the need for long-range weapons and also money, finance, to help Ukraine's defence. Are those issues likely to be discussed today at the Coalition of the Willing? Very much so, Sarah. I mean, all of the focus now is on imposing costs on Russia, already struggling, of course, as a result of the war and the existing sanctions packages. We had those talks in Brussels, you know, focused on the latest package of sanctions. They coincide with an announcement from Washington, the first time under President Trump that we've had a sanctions package, targeting Russia's two largest oil companies. So that will impose further costs on Moscow, no doubt about it. The focus in London with President Zelensky there today, not only speaking to Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, but other European allies, some in person, some joining by video link, will be on what President Zelensky euphemistically calls long-range sanctions, namely more weaponry that allows Ukraine's military to strike targets deeper and deeper inside Russia. This week we had the news that Ukraine had hit a Russian chemical plant with British-made Storm Shadow missiles, and it's those kind of weapons that Ukraine wants more of. All the while, of course, President Vladimir Putin, a man whose words are passed very carefully, of course, as the head of a nuclear power, attempting to raise the risk and some caution. In his latest press conference, he said providing Ukraine with these kind of long-range weapons would have serious, if not staggering, consequences, he said. And just remind us, John, about the Coalition of the Willing, why it was set up, what is it hoping to achieve in that relationship with Kiev? Well, it's all about bolstering support, both financial and military support for Ukraine, in particular at a time when that support is under question in Washington. The sense that, you know, aid under President Biden has stopped under President Trump. We are in a very different era, and Ukraine knows that it needs to increasingly rely on its allies in Europe. That's exactly what President Trump has been saying. And, you know, Sarah, you know, the bigger sort of picture here, you know, President Trump is talking about freezing this conflict along current lines and both sides going home. When you look at the situation on the front lines in the battlegrounds, you know, Russia already occupies Ukrainian territory equivalent in size, back of an envelope sort of calculation, but roughly equivalent in size to the area of Greece. And it still claims, it still wants to fight on for an additional area, roughly equivalent in size to Belgium. These are not small parts of territory. They involve hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens. Ukraine has lost many lives already trying to defend its territory. There is no sign that Russia is ready to stop fighting. So Europe knows that peace is not around the corner and everything now is focused on imposing costs on Russia to make it more serious, to bring it to the table and get it into a position where it is really ready to make concessions. OK, John Zudworth in key for the moment. Thank you.