LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Andy Burnham, the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, on Monday, making the wartime leader the first foreign head of government Burnham has hosted since taking office last week and signaling Britain’s commitment as a staunch ally of Kyiv.
The two convened at a British naval base, where they were to meet with more 200 Ukrainian military personnel who have been training in marine security and mine countermeasures for deployment in the Black Sea.
The prime minister’s office said Burnham would also use the meeting to announce plans to boost Ukraine’s supply of an electronic jamming device, known as Stone Cloak, that helps drones evade Russian air defenses.
After donating thousands of the units, Britain is giving Ukraine manufacturing rights to the technology, allowing Kyiv to mass-produce the tablet-size device itself.
“Britain stands with Ukraine, shoulder to shoulder, and our support remains unwavering,” Burnham said in a statement before the meeting. “Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve, and we will not back down until we achieve a long-lasting and just peace for Ukraine.”
Relations between Russia and Britain have been deeply strained since 2018, well before Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when Russian intelligence operatives deployed a banned chemical weapon on British soil seeking to kill Sergei Skripal, a former Russian agent then living in Salisbury, England.
Burnham, a former mayor of Greater Manchester who entered Downing Street on July 20 with little foreign policy experience, is the fifth British prime minister to deal with Zelensky since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.
Downing Street estimates total British support for Ukraine at 25 billion pounds (about $33 billion) since then, including 16 billion pounds in military aid.
Support for Ukraine has been a hallmark of British policy of both major parties through all of the revolving-door premierships, starting with Conservative premier Boris Johnson, who embraced Zelensky as soon as the Russian tanks rolled across the border.
Britain’s continued support has proved especially crucial as President Donald Trump’s administration has reduced aid for Kyiv and insisted that European allies purchase U.S. weapons for Ukraine.
Keir Starmer, the Labour prime minister who stepped down under party pressure last week, paid a final visit to Zelensky in Kyiv on July 16, making it his final foreign trip as head of government and committing an additional $345 million to speed the delivery of fighter jets to Ukraine.
Burnham took office four days later and spoke to Zelensky in one of his first phone calls from Downing Street, inviting him to visit “at the earliest opportunity.”
Zelensky arrived in Britain amid turbulence back home.
In recent days, he removed his defense minister, prime minister and the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, a shake-up that has prompted thousands of Ukrainians to protest on the streets. The moves have also unsettled allies wary that political disarray could complicate the flow of Western weapons.
On Tuesday, Zelensky is expected to travel to Washington for the funeral of the late senator Lindsey Graham, who died a day after returning to South Carolina from a visit to Kyiv. Zelensky is also due to meet with Trump.
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