The Daily Populous Friday November 8th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by bbc.com and submitted by shellfishb

Support for Ukraine 'iron-clad', PM tells Zelensky

Sir Keir Starmer has assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the UK's support for Ukraine in its war with Russia remains "iron-clad". The two men met at a summit of the European Political Community in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The US has been by far the largest single donor of military aid to Ukraine. But fears have been expressed that the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January might slow, if not halt, the flow of American military aid to Kyiv.

The prime minister said the summit was "not just about sovereignty of Ukraine", but also "our freedom, our democracy and our values". Following his talks with the Ukrainian leader, Sir Keir sidestepped a question about whether Trump's presidential election victory was good for Europe and Ukraine. He said he had met President Zelensky for the sixth time since becoming PM, adding it was an opportunity to affirm the UK's "iron-clad support of Ukraine". Earlier, summit host Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Europe's leaders had agreed that they needed to take responsibility for their security and not just rely on the US for their defence. "To be blunt, we cannot wait for the Americans to protect us," Orban said. The Hungarian leader is a staunch Trump supporter and has close ties to Moscow. He has been reluctant to impose sanctions on Russia or to supply Ukraine with weapons.

wurtin on November 8th, 2024 at 12:42 UTC »

The burden is now going to fully rest on Europe.

We, at best, are going to highly condition aid / equipment once Trump is sworn in. He will try to force a peace using aid/loans as a cudgel. get ukraine to give up a large amount of territory and call himself a peacemaker. also try to get us companies primed to get priority for the massive reconstruction needs in a post war Ukraine.

bsnimunf on November 8th, 2024 at 12:09 UTC »

It helps that the British people support Ukraine almost 100 percent. If there was more support for Ukraine amongst trump supporters he would probably also claim to be iron clad in supporting them

It's shows how successful subversive propaganda campaigns on social media can be in undermining support for allies. Russia's been running these campaigns very successfully. It's almost scary how vulnerable we are to their influence.

dng1 on November 8th, 2024 at 11:58 UTC »

Thanks British PM