Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy is due to attend an emergency meeting of the British Cabinet on Friday to give fresh impetus to efforts to stop Russia from evading sanctions on 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 a cabinet minister in person since US President Bill Clinton in 1997.
The visit comes as EU leaders gathering at the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on Thursday agreed to launch a “call to action” to stop the rise of “ghost” tankers transporting sanctioned Russian oil around the world.
Starmer said European leaders had sent a clear message to Putin’s backers: “We will not allow the Russian shadow fleet and the dirty money it generates to roam freely in European waters and put our security at risk,” he said.
This will be President Zelensky’s second visit to the UK since the outbreak of the war – he last visited in February 2023, where he spoke at Westminster Hall and called on Britain to supply fighter jets to Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the number of oil tankers sailing without concealing their identities and proper insurance has increased, allowing the Kremlin to build a “dark fleet” and retain oil revenues that support Russia’s military.
Maritime analytics firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said the number of such ships has doubled in the past year.
The shadow flotilla consists of around 600 vessels, accounting for around 10 percent of the world’s “wet cargo” fleet. According to the British government, the fleet carries around 1.7 million barrels of oil per day, generating significant revenue for Russia.
Some of these vessels are also alleged to be acting as Russian listening stations, while others are believed to be transporting weapons to Russia.
Starmer is expected to tell Zelensky that Britain will do more to clamp down on the Ghost Fleet, an issue also raised by French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of the Blenheim summit.
Defence ministers from both countries are also expected to sign a Defence Export Assistance Treaty to increase arms supplies to the battlefield, which is said to aim to “revitalise the industrial bases of both the UK and Ukraine and increase production of military equipment and weapons”.
This includes £3.5 billion to support the Ukrainian military, on top of the same amount recently agreed by the EU to help maintain the country’s schools, hospitals and other public services.
At the same time, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris and Mr Starmer have also expressed interest in giving further support to Ukraine in the form of installing bomb shelters in schools.
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In his address to European leaders, Zelensky invoked the “courage of Churchill” and said “acting together has kept Europe united”. He also openly attacked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, accusing him of betraying other European leaders after a recent “peace mission” to Moscow.
Regarding Putin, he said: “He may try to get close to you, he may try to get close to some of your partners individually and try to seduce or pressure some of you to blackmail you so that one of you will betray the rest. We remain united.”
Referring to Orbán’s recent meeting with Putin, he added: “If someone from Europe tries to solve the problem behind our backs or at the expense of someone else, if someone goes to a war capital several times to talk and then promises something, maybe against our common interests or at the expense of Ukraine or other countries, why should we consider such a person?”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who also attended the summit, called on European leaders to negotiate with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance if they win the November U.S. election.
He said Europe must not fall into the trap of creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that Trump’s reelection would mean the demise of NATO and the end of transatlantic ties.
“I think it’s important not to create a self-fulfilling prophecy, assuming that a new US administration means the end of NATO. There were concerns about that in 2016. The reality is that NATO is stronger after four years…more troops, more readiness,” he said.
