Russia-Ukraine war live: Keir Starmer says UK will deliver new mobile air defence system to Ukraine

Moving on to how the war may end, Starmer says any “lasting peace” must guarantee Ukrainian security, independence and Ukraine’s right to “choose its own future”.

“We will work with you and with all of our allies on steps that will be robust enough to guarantee Ukraine’s security, guarantee any possible peace and deter any future aggression. That conversation will continue in the months ahead,” the UK prime minister said in the press conference.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said that he thinks European security guarantees will be insufficient, as “real guarantees” are from Nato, which is dependent (along with European countries) on decisions taken by US.

US president-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn back into office on Monday, has frequently repeated his promise to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a swift conclusion, without specifying how. Trump has repeatedly expressed scepticism about US military and financial support for Kyiv.

In 2025, the UK will give more support to Ukraine than ever before, Keir Starmer says, adding that Britain will be delivering a new mobile air defence system to Ukraine, which will be designed by Britain and funded by Denmark. The defence system would be “developed to meet Ukraine’s needs, the British prime minister said. He also said the UK will continue to train Ukrainian troops (over 50,000 have already been trained on British soil since the start of the war three years ago).

Keir Starmer has been holding a press conference with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He has signed a 100-year partnership agreement to deepen security ties and strengthen the relationship between the Ukraine and the UK. “Together we signed a landmark agreement, the very first of its kind, a new partnership between the UK and Ukraine that reflects the huge affection that exists between our two nations,” Starmer told reporters in Kyiv.

The British prime minister, who has been visiting Kyiv today, said the UK will be with Ukraine long after this “terrible war” is over and when the country is “free and thriving once again”.

He said Russian president Vladimir Putin shows no “stomach” for wanting peace, pointing to recent Russian attacks, including the ones launched on Thursday. He praises the “resolve” of Ukrainian people in the face of “relentless” Russian aggression.

Ukraine’s military said it hit a Russian oil depot in the Voronezh region of Russia overnight, with a fire being sparked after at least three drones hit a target. Voronezh is located approximately 465 kilometers (289 miles) south of Moscow. Ukraine’s general staff said on Telegram that the depot stored fuel used by the Russian military. “A large-scale fire broke out at the facility,” the Ukrainian general staff said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Jennifer Rankin

Poland has hailed a breakthrough in a painful historical dispute with Ukraine, after it said its neighbour had agreed to allow exhumations of Polish citizens massacred by Ukrainian nationalists in the second world war.

Warsaw is one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters in the EU, offering military and diplomatic support, but for years ties have been strained over a historical atrocity – the massacre of as many as 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists between 1943 and 1945.

After a meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Warsaw on Wednesday, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said the two countries were finding “a common language and methods of joint action on the Volhynia massacre and “sensitive dramatic issues in our history”.

“They require empathy from Ukraine towards Poland and from Poland towards Ukraine,” Tusk told reporters.

The Polish government has said Ukraine has agreed to the exhumation of remains of the first victims to take place, to enable Polish families to bury their relatives with dignity.

The mutual understanding and action “deserves to be seen as a breakthrough” Tusk said.

You can read the full story here:

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said yesterday that Russia planned to conduct “acts of terrorism in the air”, by plotting a wave of fire bomb attacks that could have brought down planes mid-flight around the world (you can read more about this here).

Tusk seemed to be referring to parcels which exploded at logistics depots in Europe which Western security officials suggested were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the US.

“The latest information can confirm the validity of fears that Russia was planning acts of terrorism in the air not only against Poland,” Tusk told a news conference in Warsaw after meeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though he did not offer more detail or explanation. The Kremlin has dismissed Tusk’s allegation.

“These are absolutely unsubstantiated allegations against Russia,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Tusk’s statement today. “Poland is well known for making such accusations.”

Gunfire erupts in Kyiv as Ukrainian forces attempt to shoot down drone over capital

Luke Harding

Luke Harding is a Guardian foreign correspondent

Gunfire erupted in Kyiv as Keir Starmer held talks on Thursday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during the prime minister’s first official trip to Ukraine.

The presidential palace – where the two leaders are due to hold a press conference – echoed with loud booms, as Ukrainian air defence tried to shot down a drone.

The drone – possibly a Russian decoy – could be seen and heard buzzing above the Marynskyi presidential palace, not far from Zelenskyy’s office. It was not immediately clear if the drone was downed.

There are reports of sirens going off in Kyiv where UK prime minister Keir Starmer is on an official visit. Air defences were engaged, the city mayor wrote in a post on Telegram. Ukraine’s air force announced a drone attack threat. We will give you more details on this as soon as we get more information.

Here are some comments Keir Starmer, the UK’s prime minister, gave to broadcasters after his visit to a hospital in Kyiv (he is in the capital to sign what Downing Street is calling a “landmark 100-year partnership” with Ukraine). Starmer said:

It’s very important we ensure that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position.

That’s something I’ve been arguing for since I was prime minister. This is my seventh meeting with President Zelenskyy.

I’m here at the burns unit of one of the Kyiv hospitals, which is a grim reminder of the heavy price Ukraine is paying.

So we must give the necessary support, and that’s what I’m discussing with President Zelenskyy today. We must never let up on that and we’ve been leading the way.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has arrived in Kyiv to sign a security and trade pact with Ukraine, in a public show of support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the much anticipated return of Donald Trump to the White House on Monday.

The two countries will sign a partnership deal to deepen the existing defence relationship, with further military assistance to Kyiv on offer amid concerns Trump could reduce aid to Kyiv at a time when Russia continues to make battlefield gains.

Starmer, who is today making his first visit to Ukraine since he became prime minister last July, was due to sign a 100-year partnership with Kyiv, which will be laid before the British parliament in the coming weeks.

Starmer’s office said the treaty, aimed at deterring ongoing Russian aggression, will bolster military collaboration by seeking to strengthen security in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Azov Sea.

Zelenskyy had earlier said that he and Starmer would discuss the possibility of having western troops stationed in Ukraine to oversee a ceasefire agreement, a divisive proposal initially put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump has vowed to end the war within 24 hours of taking office, without specifying exactly how. It is expected that pressure for negotiations will mount when his administration takes over next week.

Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told the Senate foreign relations committee that the new administration would seek “bold diplomacy” to end the war. “There will have to be concessions made by the Russian Federation, but also by the Ukrainians,” he said yesterday.

You can read more on Starmer’s visit to Kyiv and what it signals about Europe’s views on Trump’s policy on Ukraine here.

Here are some of the other latest developments:

• The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that its forces had captured more than two dozen troops in the western Russian region of Kursk, where Russian troops have been trying to eject Ukrainian forces for the past five months. “Ukrainian paratroopers together with adjacent units captured 27 enemy servicemen in the Kursk region,” a military statement said, adding that the Russian troops had surrendered.

• Ukraine downed 34 out of 55 drones launched by Russia across 11 of the country’s regions in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said, with a further 18 failing to reach their targets.

• Russia launched missiles and drones at Ukrainian energy facilities on Wednesday, one day after Kyiv said it had carried out its largest aerial attack of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometres from the frontline. The mayor of the southern city of Kherson said there were power cuts as a result of the barrage. After the attack, Zelenskyy called on the west to use around US$250bn of unallocated frozen Russian assets to buy Kyiv weapons.

• Europe must “take responsibility” for its own security, Poland has told its fellow EU member states, as Warsaw takes over the rotating presidency of the bloc at a time of increasing geopolitical uncertainty.