Burnham shows Zelenskyy UK support amid fresh Russian attack

U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham will host Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London on Wednesday as Kyiv and its allies scramble to respond to President Donald Trump’s diesel deal with Russia.

Burnham will tell the Ukrainian president that Britain will draw up new sanctions against the Kremlin’s war effort while accelerating delivery of lightweight multirole missiles to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russian jet-powered drones. The show of allied support came amid new doubts about crucial U.S. assistance, such as early-warning systems, that the U.K. and other European countries can’t replace.

“He won’t be going away from Britain today empty-handed,” Burnham told the House of Commons on Wednesday, while acknowledging Zelenskyy faced a “dark and difficult moment” following the U.S.-Russia diesel deal.

Before Zelenskyy’s meetings with Burnham, Kyiv came under fresh Russian drone and missile attacks, which struck energy infrastructure and an apartment building. Zelenskyy said that Ukraine didn’t receive ballistic missile warnings ahead of the strikes, which killed at least three people and left parts of the capital without electricity and water, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

“What I have to do in my role is try and repair bridges so that the support comes back,” Burnham told Parliament. “Therefore I should, at this moment in time, be careful in terms of laying the ground to bring people back together.”

In Washington, Trump denied cutting off intelligence-sharing from Ukraine. “We are helping them and we are sharing intel,” Trump told reporters, adding that he wanted “the war to end.”

The developments illustrated the stakes for Burnham and the U.K., which has played a key role in maintaining American support for Ukraine since Trump’s return to the White House almost two years ago. Zelenskyy has frequently found himself touring friendly European capitals during moments of tension with Washington and the visit represents a test for Burnham, who until June was mayor of Greater Manchester.

Burnham described Britain’s support for Kyiv as “rock-solid,” pledging to increase U.K. backing for the country. “It is not just the right thing to do, but it’s the necessary thing to do. Russia’s aggression cannot be allowed to succeed on our continent,” he said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

Trump announced an energy agreement with Vladimir Putin last week that Zelenskyy denounced as a “gift” to the Russian president. The U.S. leader has subsequently renewed his calls for Zelenskyy to stand down as leader.

The dispute has piled pressure on Ukraine and its European allies to demonstrate that they have a strategy to continue to fend off Russia’s full-scale invasion, well into its fifth year. It also calls into question the U.K.’s long-standing approach of attempting to keep Trump onside.

The U.K. wants hopes quiet diplomacy will show Trump that Putin is continuing his attacks on Ukraine and its energy infrastructure in defiance of a “ceasefire” announced by the U.S. president, according to British officials. That reprises the strategy used after Trump and Zelenskyy’s Oval Office fallout, which saw European leaders work to persuade the two leaders to make up and move the U.S. administration closer toward the European position.

Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Burnham said he welcomed Trump’s announcement of an energy ceasefire, declining to criticize the move.

In the wake of the latest attacks, Zelenskyy continued to argue that it was Russia, and not Ukraine, that was violating the U.S. president’s call for a halt on attacks on energy infrastructure.

“And this is absolutely unjust: when they are destroying our energy infrastructure, and Ukraine is not even receiving early warnings about ballistic missile launches,” Zelenskyy said in a post on platform X. “It is important that the United States really see what is happening and who is responsible for this war continuing.”

Speaking on Tuesday, Ken McCallum, head of the U.K.’s domestic spy agency MI5, said Britain faced more hostile state threats than during the Cold War, warning Russia was “aggressor No. 1” and was “escalating” its campaign of so-called hybrid warfare. British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting will travel to Washington on Wednesday for his first meeting with his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth.

While the U.S. didn’t inform the U.K. of the Trump-Putin deal ahead of time, Britain saw signs in the weeks preceding the announcement that the president was once again moving away from the European position, British officials said.

Ukraine still holds some cards even as it comes under renewed pressure from Trump, the people said. It is able to strike Russian oil refineries even without U.S. intelligence, using European targeting data instead, they said. If Putin does not adhere to Trump’s ceasefire, Britain would back Ukraine to keep striking Russian energy infrastructure, they added.

Any cutting off of U.S. intelligence, which briefly happened last year, would be most damaging in terms of Ukraine’s defenses because it is reliant on a U.S. early warning system to defend against Russian attacks, they said. Kyiv’s allies would lobby the U.S. not to stop sharing intelligence, they added.

—With assistance from Ellen Milligan, Daryna Krasnolutska, Julian Harris and Piotr Skolimowski.