Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany have warned of the “urgent need” to ramp up production of defensive weapons against Russia’s hypersonic Oreshnik missiles, after a late night summit in Downing Street.
Alongside Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, the leaders also called on Vladimir Putin to agree “an immediate and complete ceasefire” – and said the “current line of contact” between the two sides should be the starting point for any negotiations.
Ahead of the talks, President Zelensky had warned his country could maintain its recent attacks deep into Russia if the war continues, as he pledged Ukraine will not “silently die”.
The renewed pressure on Russia comes after it suffered a series of military setbacks in recent months.
But in a sign of the continued havoc the conflict is wreaking on Ukraine, the talks took place hours after a drone strike struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near the Chernobyl power plant.
After their meeting, the leaders also announced plans for further military support for Ukraine and greater economic pressure on Russia at G7 and Nato summits.
And they set out five conditions for Russia to meet in any peace deal.
Earlier this week, President Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting with Putin, although the Russian leader has so far rejected the idea.
In May, Ukraine hit out after Russia said it had deployed its powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile during a large-scale drone and missile assault on Kyiv.
It was the third recorded use of the Oreshnik missile in the war.
Putin has described the weapon as travelling at Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound, and said in 2024 that “there are currently no ways of counteracting this weapon”.
Ukraine’s shortage of air defence systems, in part because of US stocks being depleted by the Iran war, is thought to have has left civilians especially vulnerable to ballistic missiles.
A readout after the meeting between Sir Keir, President Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said they “condemned Russia’s large-scale missile and drone attacks – including the repeated use of the Oreshnik missiles – on Ukrainian cities with a tragic toll on civilians, as well as irresponsible and dangerous Russian drone incursions into Nato territory.”
It added: “The leaders underlined the urgent need to scale up the production of interceptors and co-develop anti-ballistic missile and deep strike capabilities, and to support the future sustainability of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
The five conditions include that Russia must agree to an immediate and complete ceasefire, that the “current line of contact” should be the starting point for negotiations and that there are robust guarantees on Ukraine’s safety. Russian assets will remain frozen until it compensates Ukraine for the war and Europe should get a say in any agreement, the leaders said.
The drone strike on Sunday damaged a storage centre for spent nuclear fuel nine miles from the Chernobyl plant.
The attack sparked a fire that was extinguished within an hour and radiation remains within safe levels, officials said.
In a post on social media, Mr Zelensky said the focus of Sunday’s meeting would be “our defence in the war, greater cooperation for the security of all of Europe in the area of air defence” and discussion of diplomatic prospects.
“Europe must be part of the negotiations and must be strong,” he said.
On Saturday a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack targeted St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, highlighting Kyiv’s growing ability to hit deep inside Russian territory.
“We will not just silently die. We will respond,” Mr Zelensky told Sky News on Sunday. “We will be stronger and stronger each day.”
