UK promises faster air defence missiles to Ukraine as Russia pounds Kyiv

The UK has promised to speed up delivery of British-made air defence missiles to Ukraine after another night of Russian attacks on Kyiv. Andy Burnham greeted President Zelensky in Downing Street with a ceremonial welcome, including the Irish Guards and a red carpet. He described the past few days as dark and difficult and said he would try to repair bridges between Zelensky and President Trump.

The attacks have left more than 600,000 homes in Ukraine without power and at least eight people dead. The strikes came without advance warnings from allies. Over the past week, Russia hit an apartment building in the North Central region last Wednesday, killing 22 people including five children. A strike on Kramatorsk killed a large number of people. An attack on a bus on Thursday killed 33 people. On Saturday, 22 people were killed in Zaporizhia. On Sunday, Russia continued attacks despite Donald Trump announcing a partial ceasefire and demanding both countries stop hitting each other's energy infrastructure. On Monday, a correspondent was live on air when Kyiv came under attack without warning. Yesterday, despite Trump saying intelligence was being shared, Kyiv was again attacked without warning.

Ukraine says it has lost adequate access to the American Starlink satellite network, which is crucial for defending against incoming attacks. Elon Musk said on X that Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action. He said any limits on speed or usage of the Starlink system for military purposes are owned and controlled by the US government and decided by the US military and ultimately the US president. An analyst in Kyiv said this confirmed what many Ukrainians had suspected: the decision to limit speeds on military-grade Starlink terminals was taken by the US government or at least at its behest. Ukrainian officials have reported that terminal speeds are being restricted, severely compromising Ukrainian mid-range capacity and the ability of drone operators to strike targets inside Russian-occupied areas. A military officer said it seemed the Americans were keen to reduce Ukraine's ability to defend its positions and that the Trump administration was behaving less like a peacemaker and more as an ally of Russia.

Trump has also publicly undermined Zelensky, saying the war should never have started and that it was time for Ukraine to get a new president. He lifted restrictions on imports of diesel from Russia. Kim Darroch, a former UK ambassador to the US, said the diesel deal was inexplicable and made almost no difference to the price or availability of oil in America, but drove a big hole through Western sanctions on Russian energy. He said it was right for Burnham not to take public issue with the decision and to see if he could talk privately to Trump, perhaps with other European leaders. He noted a track record of European leaders persuading Trump to be more supportive of Ukraine.

Burnham was invited to criticise Washington, with a question asking whether this was yet another shameful Trump betrayal of the Ukrainian people and European security. He instead said he would try to talk America around. He recognised Zelensky's plight, saying he is carrying the heaviest of weights and it is extremely difficult for him. Burnham said his role was to try to repair bridges so that support comes back, and that he should be careful laying the ground to bring people back together. The aim was to project British consistency when it is lacking elsewhere.