Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskiy will attend an extraordinary British cabinet meeting on Friday to give fresh impetus to efforts to prevent Russia from evading sanctions on its oil exports.
Zelenskiy will be the first foreign leader to visit Downing Street since Keir Starmer was elected prime minister two weeks ago and the first foreign leader to address the cabinet in person since US President Bill Clinton in 1997.
The visit comes after EU leaders meeting for the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on Thursday agreed to issue a “call to action” to disrupt the growing fleet of “ghost” tankers carrying sanctioned Russian oil around the world.
Mr Starmer said European leaders had sent a clear message to those acting as Putin’s accomplices. “We will not allow the Russian ghost fleet and the dirty money it generates to move freely through European waters and put our security at risk,” he said.
This will be Zelenskiy’s second visit to the UK since the start of the war. His last trip to the UK was in February 2023, when he gave a speech at Westminster Hall calling for the UK to provide Ukraine with fighter jets.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the number of oil tankers masking their identities and operating without proper insurance has increased, allowing the Kremlin to build a “dark fleet” and retain oil revenues to fuel the Russian war machine.
According to shipping analyst Lloyd’s List Intelligence, the number of such vessels has doubled over the past year.
The ghost fleet is made up of about 600 ships and represents about 10% of the world’s “wet cargo” fleet. It carries about 1.7 million barrels of oil per day, generating significant revenue for Russia, the British government said.
Some of these ships are also said to be serving as Russian listening stations, while others are said to be carrying weapons to Russia.
Starmer is expected to tell Zelenskiy that the UK will go further in trying to take control of the Ghost Fleet – an issue also raised by French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of the Blenheim summit.
The defence ministers of both countries are also expected to sign a defence export support treaty to boost the supply of weapons to the battlefield. It is said to aim to “boost the industrial bases of the UK and Ukraine and increase the production of military equipment and weapons”.
It will include £3.5bn to support Ukraine’s armed forces, on top of a similar amount recently agreed by the EU to help maintain public services in the country, including schools and hospitals.
At the same time, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris and Starmer have also expressed interest in providing additional support to Ukraine in the form of bomb shelters in schools.
after newsletter promotion
In his address to European leaders, Zelenskiy invoked the “bravery of Churchill,” telling them that they had “kept Europe together by acting together.” He also publicly attacked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, accusing him of betraying other European leaders after his recent “peace mission” to Moscow.
Referring to Putin, he said: “He may try to approach you, or go to some of your partners individually, trying to tempt you or put pressure on you to blackmail you, so that one of you betrays the others. We keep our unity.”
Apparently referring to Orbán’s recent visit to meet Putin, he added: “If someone in Europe is trying to solve problems behind our backs, or even at someone else’s expense, if someone wants to make a few trips to the war capital to discuss – and maybe promise something against our common interests or at the expense of Ukraine or other countries – then why should we consider such a person?”
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg, who also attended the summit, implored European leaders to engage with Donald Trump and JD Vance if they win the US election in November.
He said Europe must not fall into the trap of creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that NATO would die under a second Trump presidency and the transatlantic bond would be over.
He said: “I think it’s important not to create self-fulfilling prophecies by assuming that a new administration in the United States would mean the end of NATO. There were concerns about that already in 2016. The reality is that NATO is stronger after four years… more troops, a high level of readiness.”
