Support for Ukraine in the UK is a cross-party consensus, so the appointment of a new Prime Minister will not change London’s course. This was stated by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum and Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2014 to 2016, during a BBC interview, when asked what a change of prime minister might mean for Ukraine.
“We have always had the support of both Labour and the Tories – the two leading parties in the UK. And the British people truly value Ukraine. It is in the national security interests of both Ukraine and the UK to ensure Ukraine’s victory in the war,” he noted.
Yatsenyuk thanked the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, who has held the post for two years and has already announced his resignation as he prepares to hand over power to his successor. The former Ukrainian Prime Minister expressed his hope that the policy of supporting Ukraine would continue under the new British Prime Minister.
“I am very grateful to Keir Starmer; he has done a splendid job, and I hope that the future Prime Minister – Andrew Burnam – will do the same. By supporting Ukraine, you are supporting Britain, which is a key strategic partner of Ukraine. It is you who have led the way: from the NLAW [a Swedish-British short-range anti-tank weapon] to Challenger tanks and Storm Shadow missiles. So I do not expect any changes in British foreign policy,” emphasised the KSF Chairman.
Yatsenyuk stressed that it is down to every European, British, American and Ukrainian leader to determine whether we will succeed in winning this war and show autocrats and dictators that democracy has the strength to prevail. “We need to save the free world,” he noted.