Secretary Antony J. Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Lammy at a Joint Press Availability

FOREIGN SECRETARY LAMMY:  Well, thank you, Andrii, for welcoming me here to Kyiv.  And thank you, Tony, for joining me on this important and historic visit.  I last visited in May, and I return today at a vital time because we are united in our ironclad support for Ukraine.  For two and a half years, you have bravely and fiercely defended yourselves against Russia’s full-scale invasion, but as we heard today, Putin’s ugly attempts to restore the Russian empire began much earlier with the illegal annexation of Crimea 10 years ago.

Putin claims he wishes to liberate Ukrainian civilians, but he denies the right of their nation to exist.  He has sent in tanks and soldiers to enforce his diktat, and he inflicts horrors on Crimea and other regions of Ukraine under the Russian yoke, with stories of forced disappearances, sinister re-education camps, and torture.  Putin’s barbaric actions are the latest example of a very old and evil story.

One of my ancestors was taken from their home, enslaved, chained on a ship, and forced to work for the profit of a foreign empire.  He knew only too well what imperialism was.  No act of authoritarianism is ever exactly the same, but 80 years after Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars, 240 years after Catherine the Great annexed Crimea, Putin has revealed the same arrogance, the same greed, the same disdain for the rights of other individuals and nations.  This is imperialism; this is fascism.  And this week we have been reminded of how other authoritarian regimes are aiding Putin, with Iran going even further in support for Moscow by providing ballistic missiles, a significant and dangerous escalation.

Britain and the U.S. and our partners have responded quickly to Tehran’s undermining of global security.  Britain has sanctioned Iranian officials and entities as well as Russian entities and cargo ships involved in the transfer of weapons.  And together, we’ve restricted Iran’s air flights to Europe.  This response is in keeping with our commitment to remain Ukraine’s staunchest friend, and I’m proud of that commitment.  I’m proud of Prime Minister Starmer’s commitment to provide 3 billion in military aid every year that is needed in your fight.

And today I can confirm more than 600 million worth of support for Ukraine, including 242 million this financial year, for immediate humanitarian, energy, and stabilization needs, as well as support for reform, recovery, and reconstruction – plus we’re confirming our intention to deploy $484 million worth of World Bank loan guarantees later this year.  And the UK is speeding up military deliveries with air defense missiles, equipment of F-16 fighter jets, AS-90 self-propelled guns and spare barrels, military boats, and maritime guns having now been delivered.  I can announce we will now also send hundreds of additional air defense missiles, tens of thousands of additional artillery ammunition rounds, and more armored vehicles to Ukraine by the end of the year.

But I am most proud of the unity we and our allies have shown in support for Ukraine, and that is why our joint visit today, the first joint visit of its kind for well over a decade, is such an important signal.  Together, Britain and our allies are united in our commitment to Ukraine, to freedom, to victory, because we both recognize what is at stake here: not just the liberty of Ukraine but the security of Europe and the security of the West, and indeed the very principles that underpin the UN Charter on which rests the international order as it stands, which has brought peace and prosperity to so many.  It’s good to be with you here; it’s good to stand with you.

Thank you very much.

MODERATOR:  Thank you, excellencies.  We’ll now take a few questions, starting with Michael Birnbaum from WaPo.  I only have one microphone, so —

QUESTION:  Thanks very much.  Michael Birnbaum from The Washington Post.  Mr. Secretary, Mr. Foreign Secretary, a question about ATACMS.  How – and long-range missile Storm Shadows – how worried are you at this point about managing escalation with Russia based on your conversations today, and does the Ukrainian desire to use ATACMS, Storm Shadows, long-range missiles against the Kerch bridge that connects Crimea to mainland Russia make sense to you strategically?  And what’s your personal view of whether Ukraine needs this long-range capability of striking into Russian territory, especially now that, as you say, Iran has facilitated Russia’s ability to strike more deeply into Ukraine?

And Mr. Foreign Minister, former President Donald Trump was asked a couple times last night at the debate whether he was committed to Ukrainian victory.  He said he wanted the war to end as quickly as possible, but he didn’t say yes to victory.  I wanted to ask what you made of that and what kind of plans you are making in case there is a change in U.S. policy sometime soon.  Thanks a lot.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Michael, thank you very much.  I’m happy to – happy to start.  First, we had a very good discussion today with the foreign minister, with President Zelenskyy, with his whole team about the situation on the battlefield, Ukraine’s objectives, and what it needs to succeed going forward.  And among other things, we discussed long-range fires, but a number of other things as well.  And as I said at the outset, I’m going to take that discussion back to Washington to brief the President on what I heard.  I know that David is doing the same, and both of our bosses know that no doubt will discuss this when they meet later this week, actually. on Friday in Washington.

Just speaking for the United States, from day one, as you heard me say, we have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to do that as this evolves.  You referenced escalation.  Of course that’s one of the factors that we always consider, but it’s certainly not the only factor and it’s not necessarily a dispositive factor.  We have provided, as you know, extraordinary support to Ukraine over these more than two years – not just training, not just money, but among our most sophisticated weapon systems, again tied to what their needs are, tied to what can make them most effective.  And I think the track record is there.  We’re determined to ensure that they have what they need to succeed.

And when it comes to escalation, you made the point yourself we’ve seen Russia now pursue and indeed escalate its attacks inside Ukraine on civilians, on energy infrastructure, as well as on the Ukrainian military that’s defending its country.  And we’ve now seen this action of Russia acquiring ballistic missiles from Iran, which will further empower their aggression in Ukraine.  So if anyone is taking escalatory action, it would appear to be Mr. Putin and Russia.

I’ll leave specific targets and questions for the experts.  And of course, I don’t have personal views, I have professional views in my capacity as Secretary of State, and I’ll be sharing what we’ve learned on this trip with the President in the coming days.

FOREIGN SECRETARY LAMMY:  The escalator here is Putin.  It is Putin who has escalated this week with the shipment of ballistic missiles from Iran, and we’re seeing this new axis – Russia,   Iran, North Kore; we urge China not to throw their lot in with this group of renegades, renegades in the end that are costing lives here in Ukraine.  So it’s been very important for me to be here with Secretary Blinken to meet, to listen, to learn, to strategize, yes, and to be able to inform the UK prime minister as we head out to Washington for further discussions.

I’m also reminded that as we head into the autumn, we have the UN General Assembly, where we’re meeting with allies and parts of global majority countries also to ensure that we have that support for Ukraine as we head into the late autumn and the winter.  We have the G20, other forums, and we’ve wanted to talk about how we build on those opportunities going forward and how we put Ukraine in the best possible position as they head into a winter.  And that has been the basis of the discussion.

But let us be clear:  We’ve not just talked about military support.  We’ve talked further about sanctions.  We’ve talked further about the humanitarian needs.  We’ve had a detailed conversation about energy because of horrendous Russian attacks on energy supplies here in Ukraine.  So this has been a breadth of conversation across the board about very strong allies and about our commitment.  The UK commitment is not just for this winter.  We’re talking about a hundred-year partnership because we stand with Ukraine for the long haul.

FOREIGN MINISTER SYBIHA:  (Via interpreter) I fully agree with the partners’ take on the escalation, and let me add on my own part that I remember very well when, before any kind of principal decision for supply of some new type of equipment or new batch of equipment, we would also review the issue of escalation.  Still the decisions would be made.  We had enough willpower and enough strength in our partners to take such decisions.  After the Kursk operation of the Ukrainian military, we can say clearly that we have crossed the line of this fear of escalation.

Now, about possible outcome of the presidential election in the U.S., we will without any doubt have a new president of the United States, but we believe in steadfast support from the U.S. nation, the American nation.  We believe strongly into bipartisan support, and we clearly believe and we are convinced that fair, comprehensive, sustainable peace in Ukraine is also a strategic interest for the United States of America.  And that will be maintained, because we are here to protect our joint values, common values of democracy, and we believe that strategic democratic leadership of the U.S. is here to stay.

QUESTION:  Emma Murphy from ITV News.  If I could pose a question to you, Foreign Secretary, and also you, Secretary of State, with regard to President Zelenskyy’s comments today.  He said that he would like to see a strong decision on the use of long-range missiles into Russia.  How confident are you that you can take a message back to your superiors that will convince them of the need for that and get over divisions within your own governments potentially about the risk of escalation?

And also, Mr. Foreign Secretary, could I ask how important it is to Ukraine on the battlefield that the long-range missiles are allowed?

FOREIGN SECRETARY LAMMY:  Well thank you for the question.  We’ve had detailed conversations today with President Zelenskyy.  We recognize that Ukraine is on the front line of the fight for freedom, and also that over these last few weeks we’ve seen a tremendous loss of life of innocent men, women, and children here in Ukraine.  And I and the Secretary of State, we dedicate ourselves to supporting Ukraine at this particular time.

President Zelenskyy expressed gratitude and thanks for Britain’s 3-billion-a-year commitment that will continue for as long as this fight is needed.  He expressed thanks for the milestone of the International Fund for Ukraine – 1 billion that we are committed to.  And he’s grateful for the new package of military support, ammunition, Brimstone missiles, AS-90 artillery guns that we are providing.  We are concerned about the attacks on Ukraine’s energy.  We are concerned about these glide bombs; we are concerned about the drones.  We’re very concerned about the escalatory action that we’re seeing from Iran particularly.  We’ve looked at the breadth of things today.  And as we’ve said, of course, I go back to Keir Starmer able to assist him with some of the operational detail that we’ve learned from the Ukrainians today.  You wouldn’t expect me to go into detail about that at this press conference because I am not prepared to give Putin the advantage.  But as the closest of allies, we look forward to discussions we will have not just on Friday but discussions I suspect that will go on over the next few weeks as we head also to the UN General Assembly.

MODERATOR:  (Off-mike.)

QUESTION:  Good evening.  The public broadcaster of Ukraine – Valeria Pashko.  So Minister Sybiha mentioned the Ukrainian path to NATO.  So is it possible that Allies are ready to invite Ukraine to join NATO maybe this year?  And one more – so the coalition within NATO is being formed to shoot down drones and missiles over Ukraine.  Maybe there is a discussion between – I don’t know – Great Britain and the U.S. and Germany.  And I think the last one – are you ready to invest in Ukrainian production of drones, maybe missiles as well?  Thanks a lot.

FOREIGN SECRETARY LAMMY:  Just to be clear, the United Kingdom is already investing in Ukrainian production of drones.  And what I saw on my last trip to Ukraine was a amazing civilian – what we would call a blitz spirit, evoking the Second World War – ordinary people committed to the war effort here in Ukraine.  It’s humbling, it’s moving to see people doing all they can to prevent this Russian aggression.  Britain are supportive of Ukraine’s ambitions in relation to NATO and the security guarantees that they necessarily need.  And that’s why we work very hard with our allies to get that irreversible pathway language into the text that we were able to agree back in July, just as the new labor government came to power.  And we will continue, of course, to discuss these things with our allies.

And the other issue, of course, that Secretary Blinken has raised today is the continued need to work with Ukraine on these fundamental reform issues that make its pathway to the European Union and to NATO more achievable in the medium term.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  And really just to reiterate what the foreign secretary said, NATO allies came together, made clear that Ukraine’s path to NATO is irreversible, and now Ukraine is moving down that path.  I mentioned a few moments ago that for the first time in NATO’s history, it has stood up a dedicated command whose purpose is to help [Ukraine] move down the path to membership.  And that command is up and running, and we have a representative here in Ukraine, so all of that is moving forward.  And it’s important that as that moves forward, Ukraine continue to move forward on the necessary reforms.  But we see that on track and moving forward.

With regards to the defense industrial base, I mentioned as well a moment ago Ukraine’s defense industrial base has increased six times over the last couple of years.  That’s the result of tremendous investment that a number of us have made.  I think what’s so important about that is that it also sets up Ukraine for the long term.  Because one measure of success, one measure of Ukraine’s success is going to be its capacity to stand strongly on its own feet militarily as well as economically and democratically.

And militarily, these investments in the defense industrial base, the production of what it needs to defend itself not just today but for many years to come, is the best way to guarantee that there’s not a repeat of Russia aggression, that Ukraine has the capacity to deter aggression and, if necessary, to defend against it.  We’re also taking steps besides making direct investments ourselves, as the foreign secretary alluded to.  We’re also trying to make it easier for the private sector to do more in Ukraine even in the midst of the Russian aggression.  Some of the risk insurance is critical to that, and we’ve set up a facility to do that.  I think companies around the world see Ukraine as a very attractive place for investment, even with the ongoing aggression, because of Ukrainian capacity – and that includes the defense industrial base.

Deputy Secretary of State Verma was just here a few days ago bringing members of the American private sector with him, including from the defense industry, and we expect things to come out of that.

So all of this is moving forward.  And again, I just want to emphasize there are two goals in mind: make sure that Ukraine has what it needs now to deal with the ongoing Russian aggression, but also make sure that it has what it needs to have an enduring success, to be a strong, independent country, increasingly integrated with the institutions of the Euro-Atlantic community, including the European Union and including NATO.

FOREIGN MINISTER SYBIHA:  (Via interpreter) I would like to commend your question.  As to the necessity to shoot down Russian missiles and drones over Ukraine, we already have some incidents of a violation of airspace of neighboring countries by Russia, NATO countries, and we think that Russia, by doing that, is testing the decisiveness and unity of NATO.  That’s why we need to have this firm answer of the Allies to such a provocative and escalation by Russia, who are – more often target the targets close to the border with NATO, the targets close to the nuclear power stations in Ukraine, and they also target our underground storages, which are close to the western borders of Ukraine.

Our security agreement signed by Zelenskyy and Tusk, there was a paragraph saying that practical phase of consultations among allies about shooting down missiles over Ukraine – we think this would be a good and right step towards that.  Today I had conversation with the general secretary of NATO, and I thanked him for his position as to this issue.

Secondly, you asked about our path towards NATO and speed to achieve that.  I was next to Zelenskyy to – when he was in the bunker after February 24th, and on the second day, President Zelenskyy made a decision to file the petition to join the European Union, just to give you an idea to understand the spirit was in the air.  At that time, the Russian troops were right next to Kyiv.  We had – we could hear the artillery shooting.  But out of strategic considerations, he made a decision.  On the fourth day he prepared all the paperwork and we filed that petition, and in four months we achieved that – so having done the home assignment and meeting the requirements.

That’s why we need a quick and historical decisions as to bringing Ukraine – as to bringing Ukraine’s membership in NATO closer.  If there is a political will, we are ready to become NATO member today.

Thank you.