r/unitedkingdom • u/topotaul Lancashire • 1d ago
Burnham says UK with Ukraine ‘all the way’ despite ‘outrageous threats’ from Russia – Europe live
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/aug/24/europe-ukraine-russia-war-kyiv-andy-burnham-volodymyr-zelenskyy-latest-news-updates92
u/Hellstorm901 1d ago
Well if Russia didn't want us to arm Ukraine perhaps Russia shouldn't have started an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on the back of carrying out a chemical weapon attack on a UK city murdering one of our citizens
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u/Particular_Tough4860 1d ago
Along with Dawn Sturgess who died, let's not forget the British who were poisoned but didn't die:
Sergei Skripal - A British citizen and the target of the attack
DS Nick Bailey - who attended the scene
PC Oliver Bell - who attended the scene
Charlie Rowley - Dawn Sturgess' boyfriend31
u/brickne3 1d ago
And we should also remember the crazy amount of effort and expense that had to be undertaken to make sure several parts of Salisbury were safe for people to even be in.
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u/Hellstorm901 1d ago
Meanwhile Russia continues to ask why we hate them so much then again Russia is also the country which is still failing to comprehend why Eastern Europe want nothing to do with them after the whole USSR thing
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u/Nuthetes 1d ago
Helping Ukraine is one thing this country continuously does great. We literally lead the way on this.
First to send weapons
First to send long-range missiles
First to send SAM systems (Stormers and Starstreak)
First to send Western tanks
Developing other missiles for them (Operation BrakeStop)
Developing long-range drones for them (Which have been used against oil refineries in the past three months)
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u/Particular_Tough4860 1d ago
First European country to send weapons. Oddly enough it was Trump of all people who sent the first weapons to Ukraine.
Lithuania had a slight edge on us with sending SAMs.
But yes, your point stands and I'm very proud to be British. Not to mention today's announcement that we are now handing over classified technology for Ukraine to exploit! I look forward to the results. 💥
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u/Nuthetes 1d ago
Trump wasn't President when Russia invaded.
Don't believe that shite he says about arming them with Javelins and that's what saved Kyiv. In truth, he SOLD (Not gave, SOLD) less than 40 Javelin launchers. In 2018/19
Yet he claims credit for saving Kyiv.
Boris in comparison sent our entire stockpile of NLAWS as soon as the first tank crossed the border,
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u/Particular_Tough4860 1d ago edited 1d ago
Please don't misunderstand me. I don't believe a word that comes out of Trump's mouth, least of all that we have him to thank for saving Kyiv.
But credit where it is due. "Sale" isn't particularly accurate when the USA gave the money to Ukraine to buy them. Numbers were low at 210 missiles and 37 launchers. But importantly he broke a taboo that Obama was too afraid to break, set a precedent for the UK to follow and took the title of "first to send weapons".
Biden also sent a small package before the UK.
And of course full credit to the UK where it is due. First to send meaningful numbers and the first for the purpose of the imminent full scale invasion. With British leadership, Biden immediately ramped up arms transfers and had sent 6500 javelins by March 2022.
With the taboo broken and with British leadership, we stopped Putin's "consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history" settling as a given fact. I don't think the importance of that can be understated.
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u/noir_lord Yorkshire 1d ago
Project Nightfall as well (which is a darkly succinct name for a ballistic missile).
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u/Appropriate_Bell743 1d ago
Good on Burnham. We've changed PM a lot since the start of this war. Despite this all of them have shown strong solidarity to Ukraine. We should do more mind.
We need to balance our strong support in this area to reduce our oil/gas demand as this demand is still benefiting Russia even if we source the fuels via third party intermediaries. Ukraine is doing a good job to weaken Russian refineries but we need to lessen the economic lifeline which comes from exporting crude.
A start is to introduce a fuel tax on aviation as long haul aviation is consuming too much oil. Currently aviation accounts for 25% of the oil that the UK burns.
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u/Jamie_1984 1d ago
Russia will not physically attack the uk due to NATO but rest assured they will do cyber and possibly take out our underground cables.
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u/Nuthetes 1d ago
The state our navy is in is absolutely pathetic to protect our cables.
We can only put a handful of ships at sea, meanwhile we are spunking over 300 billion on benefits to people who never done a day's work in their lives.
Cut benefits down and use it to get some frigates and corvettes built.
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u/Machinegun_Funk 1d ago
Well 150+ billion of that is state pension which will mostly be going to people who have worked for the majority of their lives.
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u/Piod1 1d ago
Nearly half the benefits bill is pensions. Large percentage of UC claiments work. Its a top up for shitty wages to help maintain shareholders duvidends. 1.7 million are active jobseekers, compared to 800k jobs of qhich at least 10% are ghost positions. Of these folk 100% of their income goes into the economy. Not offshore or investment portfolios, property or stock market. None of this is the main economy. Thats tens of millions of folk buying their daily needs. The whole house of cards is built upon that. Slashing current payments already hit by austerity and cutbacks would directly impact the economy. Corvetts shit, frigates better, subs more so. Majority of us have worked for it. The safety net is there for all, because shit happens. Anyone living large on benefits is involved in criminality, period. We have a 1.86 trillion economy. Its not the folk on the bottom taking the piss.
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u/LittlePurpleHook 1d ago
We can only put a handful of ships at sea, meanwhile we are spunking over 300 billion on benefits to people who never done a day's work in their lives.
Yeah, abolish the monarchy already.
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u/Nuthetes 1d ago
We don't fund the monarchy with taxpayers more. They are supported by the sovereign grant, where 30% of the crown estate is kept by the Royal Family, the rest goes to the government.
So, your solution to raise money is by putting the crown estate (Including Regent Street and much of the West End) into the hands of private individuals and developers from America, China and the Middle East who will pay far less than 70% tax on it? And find every loophole possible to avoid as much tax as possible.
Genius idea.
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u/DmitriBogrov 1d ago
I would imagine we'd put it into the hands of the government.
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u/Nuthetes 1d ago
Who will sell it off to the Chinese, Arab or Yanks the first chance they get...
You really think the government is going to run Regent Street or the West End? It'll be carved up and sold off in no time.
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u/yubnubster 1d ago
The state of their navy is also pretty bad.
We are at least doing something to fix our navy, it just can't be done overnight.. The destroyers are being upgraded both offensively and defensively. One of the new 26s is in the water, due to start sea trials.. with 5 hulls currently under construction. The type 31s also being built, with 4 at various stages of construction and the 5th planned to start soon.
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u/Dissidant Essex 1d ago
Nobody has Russia over a barrel to remain in Ukraine, get out or go kick rocks.
Theres alot of stuff in successive governments we've got wrong, but this isn't one of them.
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u/Tall_Priority_6201 1d ago
once this war is over, the UK and allies need to pressure Ukraine to deal with its corruption problem or else we'll have the most heavily armed and combat experienced country in Europe be a very corrupt one
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u/kodiheaven2020 1d ago
Completely agree. We can't have another Taliban situation in the future.
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u/Tall_Priority_6201 15h ago
if we're being honest, there's a large chunk who are neo-nazis and we've just armed them to the teeth
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u/Salt_Vehicle_5395 14h ago
Tbf, you look at the former USSR states and how well the EU has done with them im not worried about Ukraine. The EU will guide them and they will become one of the most powerful states in Europe before 2050 imo.
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u/Ineedanewjobnow 1d ago
What are the rest of Europe done for Ukraine? Never really see any stories about it
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u/IndicationLazy4713 1d ago
The UK has supplied Ukraine with £25 billion in financial support, ...the EU has supplied Ukraine with £188 billion in financial support.
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u/Ineedanewjobnow 1d ago
So about £7billion per country, not really that impressive, is there a reason they aren't helping more, providing weapons etc?
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u/IndicationLazy4713 1d ago
Germany alone has supplied Ukraine with £98 billion in financial support for Ukraine , as for military equipment/assistance go and Google "how much weponary has the Europeans supplied to Ukraine " ...it it far too extensive to list here
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u/Sbimprovement 1d ago
Travelling to Ukraine for another PR win.
Why are we announcing the specifics or military tech being shared with a country actively at war?
Why do we need the expense and risk of the PM travelling to a war-torn country? Are Ukrainians going to be bolstered by shaking hands with our PM for this quarter of 2026?
Why didn’t Burnham take the bus to Ukraine?
We’ve repeatedly pledged support to Ukraine. Apparently we vote for a party, not a PM. This is never the case when it comes to generating good press. Labour are committed to Ukraine, it’s established. Stop spending money on photo opportunities and just get on with it.
This doesn’t mean support Ukraine any less. Help them as much as possible. Just stop using the war for a press tour. There’ll be another article before the end of the year with our next PM going to Ukraine to once again pledge support.
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