Zelenskyy, who arrived in the U.K. on Thursday, first outlined the details of his five-point plan to Starmer in London, focusing primarily on military support for Kyiv.
Following his meeting with Starmer, Zelenskyy said: “The Victory Plan aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war. It is a bridge to the second Peace Summit. Ukraine can negotiate only from a strong position.”
The Ukrainian Presidential Office wrote: “The leaders agreed to work on the plan together with the allies.”
Later, the two leaders met with the new Secretary General of NATO,
Mark Rutte , who took over the helm of the organization last week from Jens Stoltenberg, who stepped down after 10 years at the post.
The three discussed Zelenskyy’s “victory plan” and the possibility of allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles donated by its allies inside Russian territory.
“We discussed it today, but in the end it is up to the individual allies,” Rutte said, referring to Kyiv’s use of Western-supplied missiles inside Russia.
Starmer’s spokesperson said that there was an “ongoing discussion between the U.K., Ukraine and international partners about how we help Ukraine heading into the winter.”
“We obviously want to put Ukraine in the strongest position. But no war has ever been won by a single weapon. And on Storm Shadow [missiles] specifically, there has been no change to the U.K. government’s position on the use of long-range missiles,” the spokesperson said, quoted by Reuters.
Russia has previously said it would respond if Western countries allowed Ukraine to strike Russia with their missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that such a decision would mean NATO countries directly fighting with Russia and that “the very essence of this conflict will be changed.”
The meeting on Thursday was a boost for Ukraine after an
international summit of its allies in Germany was canceled.
The summit, originally planned for October 12, was postponed after U.S. President Joe Biden canceled his visit to focus on Hurricane Milton.
