Ukraine and UK tout ‘100-year partnership’

Vladimir Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who arrived in Kyiv, signed an agreement between Ukraine and Great Britain on a 100-year partnership, TASS reports.

"We have reached a new level, this is more than strategic relations. We have signed an agreement on a centenary partnership," the Ukrinform agency quotes Zelensky as saying.

It is noted that this document will deepen bilateral relations in the defense sector, in addition, it provides for further military assistance to Kiev.

In addition, it was reported that the parties will conclude an agreement that will allow UK to extract minerals on Ukrainian territory and strengthen naval cooperation between the two countries.

The Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK and former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny, who met Starmer at the Kiev railway station, said that the agreement pays special attention to security issues.

The British Foreign Office writes on its website that the agreement "will strengthen military cooperation in the field of maritime security and create new principles of work to strengthen security in the Baltic, Black and Azov Seas."

The document also talks about cooperation in the field of technology and science, including the production of drones and spacecraft, as well as in healthcare, agriculture and education, writes the Russian service of the BBC news.

According to The Guardian, Starmer is expected to discuss with Kiev officials what security guarantees the UK can provide to Ukraine, including the possibility of sending British troops as part of peacekeeping forces after the conflict is resolved.

Starmer took office six months ago, but, unlike his predecessors, was in no hurry to visit Kiev. This is his first visit to Ukraine as British Prime Minister.

The State Duma of the Russian Federation considered the plans for a long-term partnership to be overly optimistic, given that Ukraine risks losing its sovereignty in the near future due to the policies of the Kiev regime. Starmer, however, is using the Ukrainian issue to solve domestic political problems, experts add.

At the end of November 2024, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) warned that the West was planning a de facto occupation of Ukraine under the guise of deploying a "peacekeeping contingent" in the country, the total number of which would be 100 thousand people, RT writes.

The Kremlin notes that the deployment of any peacekeeping contingent is possible only with the consent of the parties to a particular conflict.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized in an interview with TASS that Moscow is not satisfied with the proposals that come from representatives of the team of US President-elect Donald Trump to introduce a peacekeeping contingent of "British and European forces" into Ukraine.

"Ukraine is rapidly losing its own sovereignty, because of the policy being pursued under the leadership of the West, it risks ceasing to exist as a state in principle, so London will soon have no one to strengthen the ties outlined in this agreement with," said Dmitry Belik, a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs.

"In general, the signing of such an agreement once again confirms the interest of the West, in particular the UK, in using Ukraine as a tool against Russia. There is no talk of any well-being of this country and its citizens."

At the same time, the parliamentarian recalled that Zelensky cannot be called the legitimate president of Ukraine, therefore all agreements concluded with him are highly questionable from the point of view of legal force.

"The West traditionally covers up the pumping of weapons into Kiev, the use of Ukrainian citizens as manpower, the desire to seize Ukraine's resources and satisfy its own selfish interests with such populist agreements," added Dmitry Belik.