UKRAINE: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Kyiv on Thursday on an unannounced visit to sign a “100-year accord” and shore up support for Ukraine before Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Loud blasts and air raid sirens rang out over Kyiv hours after Starmer’s arrival as air defense systems in central Kyiv repelled a Russian drone attack, officials and AFP journalists reported.

It is Starmer’s first official visit to Kyiv since taking office last July, and comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holds a flurry of meetings with his country’s allies before Trump’s return next week. The prime minister was due to sign a “landmark 100-year partnership to deepen security ties” between the UK and Ukraine and meet Zelensky, Downing Street said in a statement.

“Putin’s ambition to wrench Ukraine away from its closest partners has been a monumental strategic failure,” Starmer said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.

“Instead, we are closer than ever, and this partnership will take that friendship to the next level,” he said of the accord. The deal commits the two sides to cooperate on defense and battlefield technology, such as drones, while implementing a system to help locate grain exported by Russia from occupied parts of Ukraine. “This is not just about the here and now, it is also about an investment in our two countries for the next century,” added Starmer.

He was also expected to announce an extra £40 million to aid Ukraine’s post-war economic recovery. Starmer kicked off the visit by laying wreaths with Zelensky to commemorate killed Ukrainian soldiers and visited a burns hospital treating wounded servicemen.

Russian advances

Zelensky earlier said that he and Starmer would discuss the possibility of having Western troops stationed in Ukraine to oversee any ceasefire agreement, a divisive proposal initially put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The UK has been one of Ukraine’s biggest military backers, pledging £12.8 billion ($16 billion) in military and civilian aid since Russia invaded three years ago. The United States remains by far Ukraine’s biggest financial backer but that looks set to change when Trump arrives.

His nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Wednesday that the new administration would instead seek “bold diplomacy” to end the war. “There will have to be concessions made by the Russian Federation but also by the Ukrainians,” he said.

Trump has previously vowed to end the war within a day, with his aides speaking of leveraging US assistance to Ukraine to force it into territorial concessions. As part of Ukraine’s whirlwind diplomatic program, Italy defense minister Guido Crosetto announced on Thursday that he had also arrived in Kyiv on an official visit for a “series of institutional meetings”. The visits come at a precarious moment for Ukraine on the battlefield.

Fighting has escalated before Trump’s inauguration on Monday, as both sides seek to gain the upper hand in anticipation of potential negotiations aimed at settling the war launched by Russia in February 2022. At several key points in the northern Kharkiv and eastern Donetsk regions, Russian forces have been able to steadily advance by exploiting their advantages in manpower and resources.

In the southern Kherson region, which is partially occupied by Russian forces, Ukrainian officials said one person had been killed overnight by a drone strike. The governor separately said that a 92-year-old woman had been wounded and sought medical help in the frontline village of Yantarne. The Ukrainian airforce meanwhile said its air defense systems had shot down 34 Russian drones, including the Iranian-designed Shahed type, over 11 regions of the country. — AFP