Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Britain’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, agreed to deepen defense cooperation during talks at Portsmouth Naval Base on Monday, July 27. The leaders discussed joint drone production, Ukraine’s urgent need for ballistic-missile interceptors and the transfer of British electronic-warfare technology, according to the Associated Press and the UK government.
The meeting aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth made Zelenskyy the first foreign leader Burnham has received in person since taking office one week earlier. Burnham said the choice demonstrated that London would maintain its commitments to Kyiv as Russia’s full-scale invasion entered its fifth year. Zelenskyy described the bilateral relationship as stronger than at any previous point.
A central announcement concerned Stone Cloak, a tablet-sized British jammer designed to hinder Russian air-defense systems from tracking and targeting drones. The UK government said it would share the system’s intellectual property so Ukraine could manufacture it at scale. Britain has already supplied thousands of the devices, while lessons from their battlefield use are expected to inform Britain’s future long-range weapons.
The leaders also examined plans for joint defense production. Britain and Ukraine already have an agreement to develop drones together, and Zelenskyy has proposed a large production facility in Britain. Burnham said the discussion focused at length on interceptors needed to protect Ukraine’s energy and other critical infrastructure during winter, adding that London would pursue the requests with its partners.
At the naval base, the leaders met more than 200 Ukrainian personnel who had trained in Britain during Exercise Sea Breeze. The Royal Navy said the wider exercise involved 750 personnel from 18 nations and 10 ships, and tested mine clearance, firefighting, gunnery and task-group command. Five Ukrainian minehunters operating from Portsmouth participated as crews prepared for future Black Sea missions.
Britain says its support for Ukraine since the full-scale invasion has reached 25 billion pounds, including 16 billion pounds in military assistance, and it has pledged 3 billion pounds annually for as long as needed. The talks came one day before Zelenskyy was expected to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington, placing missile defense, industrial cooperation and continued allied backing at the center of his diplomacy.
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