UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Ukraine's Western backers are ready to take to the next level their efforts to punish Moscow for continuing Europe's deadliest war in decades and force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
Starmer made the statements following a meeting in London with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of the the Coalition of the Willing, a grouping of more than 20 nations helping the embattled country.
The meeting comes after months of intense efforts by US President Donald Trump to convince Putin to end his 44-month old war -- the biggest on the continent since World War II -- have failed.
"We've been clear today, that we must respond. Working with the US, this coalition is determined to go further than ever, to ratchet up the pressure on Putin -- from the battlefield to his war economy -- because that is the only way to change his mind and push him back to the table," Starmer told a press conference following the two-hour meeting.
Starmer, who set up the coalition with French President Emmanuel Macron, was joined in person by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Netherland Prime Minister Dick Schoff, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Zelenskyy. Other leaders participated virtually.
Starmer said the group had agreed on a plan to support Ukraine through the rest of the year that included curtailing Russian energy revenue, tapping Moscow's foreign currency reserves to back loans to Ukraine, and supplying Kyiv with additional air defense as well as long-range missiles.
"I think Putin's strategy has been to wait for us [allies] to stop at some point to give up. But of course, this will never happen," Frederiksen said.
Rutte offered hope that increased pressure on Russia along with the mounting costs of the war would force Putin to the negotiating table.
"The truth is that Putin is running out of money, troops and ideas," he said.
The UK prime minister announced that his country is accelerating plans to deliver 5,000 light-weight multi-role missiles to Ukraine.
However, he did not give specifics on the coalition's potential delivery of long-range missiles to Ukraine. The UK and France have supplied Storm Shadow and Scalp long-range cruise missile to Kyiv in the past.
Missiles, Sanctions
Zelenskyy is seeking more powerful, long-range Western missiles to continue striking Russia's energy facilities.
Oil accounts for about a third of Russia's federal budget revenue and any significant drop in oil exports would hurt Moscow's ability to fund its war.
Russia's economy is already in a precarious situation amid soaring war expenses and declining oil prices, which this month hit a nearly five-year low.
Ukraine has carried out a sustained attack on Russian oil facilities this year with its less-powerful long-range drones, damaging more than a dozen refineries.
Zelenskyy last week traveled to Washington to request US long-range Tomahawk missiles but Trump turned him down. However, in a surprise move, the US president agreed this week to sanction Russia's two-largest oil companies.
It was the first economic penalties imposed on Russia by the Trump since taking office nine months ago.
The US sanctions were coordinated with the UK and similar moves by the EU. The impact of the latest round of Western sanctions hinges on whether China and India, the two-largest buyers of Russian oil, move to curtail purchases.
In his remarks following the coalition meeting, Starmer indirectly urged those nations to cut back on Russia's "tainted resources."
Russian Attacks
Zelenskyy's visit to Britain on October 24 came as Russia continued its relentless attacks on Ukraine, killing two people and injuring at least 17 in overnight drone and artillery strikes on the Kherson region in the south and carrying out other assaults from the air and on the front lines, local authorities said.
Officials in the Russian region that surrounds Moscow, meanwhile, said five people were injured when a drone hit a suburban apartment building early on October 24.
Ukraine has carried out numerous drone attacks in Russia, but most of them target energy and military infrastructure and strikes on Moscow are rare.
Russia has battered Ukraine with near-daily drone and missile strikes, causing numerous civilian casualties, while pushing forward slowly on the front lines.
It has also targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure, battering its natural gas fields and power plants just as winter approaches.
Schoff said that the coalition is "very concerned" about Russia's attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which have forced Kyiv to recently seek greater volumes of natural gas imports from Europe.
Schoff said the Netherlands, will increase "financial and material support" for Ukraine's energy needs and urged other partners nations to consider doing the same.
Starmer reiterated his view that Europe should tap the more than $200 billion in Russian central bank reserves held in Belgium to support Ukraine, an idea that has been under discussion since shortly after Putin launched the war in February 2022.
European Union leaders meeting in Brussels a day earlier fell short of reaching an agreement to tap the more those reserves after Belgium raised legal and technical concerns about the proposal.
"We want to move ahead at speed with the work needed to deliver reparation loans and get the funds flowing to Ukraine," he said.
