Today, the acting president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, met with the new prime minister of the UK, Andy Burnham, at the Royal Navy’s Portsmouth naval base aboard the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
Zelensky, en route to Washington for tomorrow’s funeral of Lindsey Graham and a meeting with Donald Trump, was the first foreign head of state to be hosted by Burnham since he took over the British government last week.
“This is an important signal of support, and the Prime Minister assured us that this support remains unwavering,” Zelensky said on X.
Zelensky reported that the two of them discussed Ukraine’s “defense,” and the development of joint defense production, in the wake of a decision by the UK today to provide Ukraine with electronic warfare technologies to protect Ukrainian drones. “I invited Andy to visit Ukraine,” Zelensky concluded.
In an earlier X posting, Zelensky talked about opening “a new chapter” in Ukraine’s relations with the UK through drone co-production. Last week he had hosted a delegation from the U.S. MIC company Raytheon, to discuss co-production in Ukraine of missiles for the Patriot air defense system.
In the British case, the state-of-the-art drones for attacking Russia would be produced on British soil. Wrote Zelensky, “For example, the Drone Deal. I want to build a big factory in Britain based on new technologies, share them with our partners. We are ready to share all our experience with the UK. I hope that the UK will do the same. We need to make this Drone Deal very strong.”
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