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Jonathan Powell, National Security Adviser to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, visited Ukraine this weekend. The main purpose of the visit is to prepare the Ukrainian team for talks with US representatives to be held this week in Saudi Arabia. Sky News reports, citing sources in the UK government.
The British want to help Kyiv avoid a repeat of the tense situation that arose between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump during their last meeting in the White House. According to The Times, Prime Minister Keir Starmer also tried to persuade the US president to resume the suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
Trump, in turn, said that his administration has “almost” resumed intelligence cooperation, but the decision on military assistance remains an open question. For now, the UK is focused on resuming data sharing, which seems more achievable than returning military support funding.
After meeting with Zelenskyy at the White House, Trump froze military aid to Ukraine. At the same time, in a Sunday interview, he said that even with US support, Ukraine may not “survive” the war.
According to Reuters, US officials plan to use the talks in Saudi Arabia to assess Ukraine’s readiness to make “concrete” concessions to Russia to end the war.
Whether the UK will be able to influence the US and return full support to Ukraine will become clear in the coming days.
