British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is planning to travel to New York in September, where he is expected to press US President Donald Trump for further support for Ukraine. World leaders are due to gather in the city next month for the United Nations General Assembly, with military aid for Kyiv high on the agenda. If confirmed, the trip would be Burnham’s first official visit to the United States since he became prime minister in July.
“I’ve not fully confirmed the details yet, but it’s likely I will go, particularly after today’s discussion,” Burnham told Bloomberg this week, referring to talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Leaving today, I’m quite clear what I need to do in the next few weeks.” He said he considered the problem of Ukraine’s dwindling interceptor stockpiles “fixable,” though any solution would likely require “a lot of layers and a lot of negotiation.”
Burnham was in Kyiv on Monday as Western leaders marked Ukraine’s Independence Day. In a speech from the capital, he reiterated his backing for the country despite what he called Russia’s “outrageous threats” against the UK. The Russian Embassy in London had warned this month of “consequences,” accusing Britain of “deliberately opting for an escalation.” “We are with you in this struggle all the way, heart and soul,” Burnham said. “And as prime minister, let me say that I am with you personally.”
Britain also announced this week that it would give Ukraine the technology to produce its own Storm Shadow cruise missiles, part of a wider ramping up of support. Luke Pollard, the UK’s minister for defence readiness and industry, said the step would create “more deterrence against Russian aggression.”
Zelenskyy’s central demand, however, remains the US-made Patriot, one of the world’s most advanced air defence systems, capable of intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles, aircraft and loitering munitions. In July, Trump appeared to agree to let Kyiv produce missiles for the system domestically before backtracking, saying you have to be “very careful about letting somebody build them.” Writing on X on Sunday, Zelenskyy said he wanted to secure 300 missiles for the Patriot systems as part of a winter package, adding that Ukraine hoped to access “some small percentage” of US stockpiles and was “ready to pay for those supplies.”
