Cameron meets Trump amid push to shore up Ukraine support
Good morning and welcome to the Ukraine live blog. We start with news that David Cameron has held talks with Donald Trump in Florida amid a push to shore up support for Ukraine and advance a new package of aid that is held up in Congress.
In a statement on Monday, a Foreign Office spokesperson said:
Ahead of his visit to Washington, the foreign secretary will meet former President Trump in Florida today. It is standard practice for ministers to meet with opposition candidates as part of their routine international engagement.
Cameron’s discussion with the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, believed to be the first such meeting by a senior UK minister with Trump since he left office, covered Ukraine, the war in Gaza and the future of Nato, according to a report in the Telegraph.
Trump has repeatedly voiced misgivings about aid to Ukraine and questioned America’s commitment to Nato, the international alliance which the US has committed to defending when necessary.
On his visit to Washington, Cameron will warn that success for Kyiv in defeating Russia is “vital for American and European security” as he urges lawmakers across to approve “urgent” further assistance for the country.
He will hold talks with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and is hoping to meet the House speaker, Mike Johnson, whose colleagues are preventing the vote on an extra $60bn (£47bn) of Ukraine aid. He is not scheduled to meet US president Joe Biden.
Lord Cameron will push for Ukraine to be given the resources needed to “go on the offensive” in 2025 and will urge congressional leaders to “change the narrative” on support for Kyiv, the Foreign Office said.
Key events
A Ukraine-launched, anti-ship Neptune missile was destroyed over the Black Sea, and four drones were downed over the Belgorod and Voronezh regions, the Russian Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.
“Duty air defence systems destroyed four Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territories of the Belgorod (2 UAVs) and Voronezh (2 UAVs) regions, and (the Neptune) Ukrainian missile was destroyed over the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed all 20 attack drones that Russia launched targeting Ukraine, Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Tuesday.
The drones were destroyed over the Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Vinnytsia and Lviv regions, Oleshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app.
He added that Russia also launched four missiles from the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, but he did not say what happened to those missiles.
Reuters could not immediately verify Oleshchuk’s comments.
Cameron meets Trump amid push to shore up Ukraine support
Good morning and welcome to the Ukraine live blog. We start with news that David Cameron has held talks with Donald Trump in Florida amid a push to shore up support for Ukraine and advance a new package of aid that is held up in Congress.
In a statement on Monday, a Foreign Office spokesperson said:
Ahead of his visit to Washington, the foreign secretary will meet former President Trump in Florida today. It is standard practice for ministers to meet with opposition candidates as part of their routine international engagement.
Cameron’s discussion with the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, believed to be the first such meeting by a senior UK minister with Trump since he left office, covered Ukraine, the war in Gaza and the future of Nato, according to a report in the Telegraph.
Trump has repeatedly voiced misgivings about aid to Ukraine and questioned America’s commitment to Nato, the international alliance which the US has committed to defending when necessary.
On his visit to Washington, Cameron will warn that success for Kyiv in defeating Russia is “vital for American and European security” as he urges lawmakers across to approve “urgent” further assistance for the country.
He will hold talks with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and is hoping to meet the House speaker, Mike Johnson, whose colleagues are preventing the vote on an extra $60bn (£47bn) of Ukraine aid. He is not scheduled to meet US president Joe Biden.
Lord Cameron will push for Ukraine to be given the resources needed to “go on the offensive” in 2025 and will urge congressional leaders to “change the narrative” on support for Kyiv, the Foreign Office said.
