UK PM in Kyiv for Security Talks       01/16 06:06

   

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in 
Ukraine's capital on Thursday with a pledge to help guarantee the country's 
security for a century, days before Donald Trump is sworn in as U.S. president.

   The British government says Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr 
Zelenskyy will sign a "100-Year Partnership" treaty in Kyiv covering areas 
including defense, science, energy and trade.

   Starmer's unannounced visit is his first trip to Ukraine since he took 
office in July. He visited the country in 2023 when he was opposition leader, 
and has twice held talks with Zelenskyy in London since becoming prime 
minister. The war will be three years old next month.

   The Italian defense chief was also in Kyiv on Thursday, two days after 
Germany's defense minister visited and three days after Zelenskyy talked by 
phone with French President Emmanuel Macron.

   The flurry of diplomatic activity came in the run-up to Trump's inauguration 
next Monday, which is expected to bring a departure from the outgoing U.S. 
administration's pledge to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to defeat 
Russia. Trump has also indicated he wants Europe to shoulder more of the burden 
for helping Ukraine.

   On a gray and frosty morning, Starmer was greeted at Kyiv railway station by 
Martin Harris, the U.K.'s ambassador to Ukraine, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi, 
Ukraine's envoy to London.

   "We're a long way into this conflict," Starmer said. "We mustn't let up."

   The U.K., one of Ukraine's biggest military backers, has pledged 12.8 
billion pounds ($16 billion) in military and civilian aid since Russia's 
full-scale invasion three years ago, and has trained more than 50,000 Ukrainian 
troops on British soil. Starmer is to announce another 40 million pounds ($49 
million) for Ukraine's postwar economic recovery.

   But the U.K.'s role is dwarfed by that of the United States, and there is 
deep uncertainty over the fate of American support for Ukraine once Trump takes 
office on Jan. 20. The president-elect has balked at the cost of U.S. aid to 
Kyiv, says he wants to bring the war to a swift end and is planning to meet 
Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom he has long expressed admiration.

   Kyiv's allies have rushed to flood Ukraine with as much support as possible 
before Trump's inauguration, with the aim of putting Ukraine in the strongest 
position possible for any future negotiations to end the war.

   Zelenskyy has said that in any peace negotiation, Ukraine would need 
assurances about its future protection from its much bigger neighbor.

   Britain says its 100-year pledge is part of that assurance and will help 
ensure Ukraine is "never again vulnerable to the kind of brutality inflicted on 
it by Russia," which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and attempted a 
full-scale invasion in February 2022.

   The deal commits the two sides to cooperate on defense -- especially 
maritime security against Russian activity in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Sea 
of Azov -- and on technology projects including drones, which have become vital 
weapons for both sides in the war. The treaty also includes a system to help 
track stolen Ukrainian grain exported by Russia from occupied parts of the 
country.

   "Putin's ambition to wrench Ukraine away from its closest partners has been 
a monumental strategic failure. Instead, we are closer than ever, and this 
partnership will take that friendship to the next level," Starmer said ahead of 
the visit.

   "This is not just about the here and now, it is also about an investment in 
our two countries for the next century, bringing together technology 
development, scientific advances and cultural exchanges, and harnessing the 
phenomenal innovation shown by Ukraine in recent years for generations to come."

   Zelenskyy says he and Starmer also will discuss a plan proposed by French 
President Emmanuel Macron that would see troops from France and other Western 
countries stationed in Ukraine to oversee a ceasefire agreement.

   Zelenskyy has said any such proposal should go alongside a timeline for 
Ukraine to join NATO. The alliance's 32 member countries say that Ukraine will 
join one day, but not until after the war. Trump has appeared to sympathize 
with Putin's position that Ukraine should not be part of NATO.

   As the grinding war nears the three-year mark, both Russia and Ukraine are 
pushing for battlefield gains ahead of possible peace talks. Ukraine has 
started a second offensive in Russia's Kursk region, where it is struggling to 
hang onto a chunk of territory it captured last year, and has stepped up drone 
and missile attacks on weapons sites and fuel depots inside Russia.

   Moscow is slowly taking territory at the cost of high casualties along the 
600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line in eastern Ukraine and launching intense 
barrages at Ukraine's energy system, seeking to deprive Ukrainians of heat and 
light in the depths of winter. A major Russian ballistic and cruise missile 
attack on regions across Ukraine on Wednesday compelled authorities to shut 
down the power grid in some areas.