We need you, Zelensky tells Rishi Sunak as ‘he senses British support could decline’
Volodymyr Zelensky has told Rishi Sunak that Ukraine “needs” him amid growing fears British military aid could decline after the Prime Minister commissioned a progress report on the war.
According to BBC Newsnight, senior figures in Whitehall fear Mr Sunak may pivot to an overly cautious approach to the war after he requested a data-driven audit on Britain’s military contributions to Ukraine.
One Whitehall source said Mr Zelensky had “sensed what is going on” and subsequently appealed to his British counterpart to maintain the levels of support Ukraine has enjoyed from the UK.
“So he has been talking to Rishi,” they added. “He is trying to inspire him, saying the UK are the great liberators, the great fighters. We need you. Rise to that.”
However, Downing Street hit back at the claims. A No 10 source said: “His support for Ukraine is unwavering and it is not true that he is taking a more cautious approach.”
Defence sources also stressed to The Telegraph Mr Sunak’s support for the war-torn country. They said “he isn’t going soft at all” and added there was a difference between taking briefings and “going soft”.
Whitehall sources have likened the exercise to a “Goldman Sachs dashboard” examination of the war and how UK military supplies are used.
They told the BBC: “Wars aren’t won [by dashboards], wars are won on instinct. At the start of this it was Boris (Johnson) sitting down and saying: ‘Let’s just go for this.’ So Rishi needs to channel his inner Boris on foreign policy though not of course on anything else.”
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The source said the audit, known as a data-driven assessment, was designed to assess the progress of the war and the significance of the UK’s military contributions to Ukraine.
They said: “This is about looking at what we have put in, what we have got out.”
Last month Mr Sunak visited Ukraine and tweeted its president to say “Britain knows what it means to fight for freedom”.
“We are with you all the way,” he added. During the visit he announced a new £50 million air defence package to help counter Russian attacks.
Mr Sunak has spoken to Mr Zelensky multiple times since entering Downing Street, and used his appearance at the G20 earlier this year to join allies and other Western leaders in condemning Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
The Prime Minister’s response to Ukraine will inevitably be compared with Mr Johnson, who is regarded as a hero by many in Ukraine. Streets have been named after him as a sign of thanks for the way he worked tirelessly to build an international coalition of support for Kyiv in the weeks and months after the invasion in February this year.
In October, the Telegraph revealed that Mr Johnson was considering setting up a new organisation to help support Ukraine and rebuild the war-torn country as he seeks to build a new career on the international stage.
One friend of Mr Johnson who is familiar with the plans described it as a “Marshall plan for Ukraine” adding “Boris will raise loads of money” from private donors.
A source close to Mr Johnson confirmed the plans to help with the “reconstruction” of Ukraine but warned that they were moving forward at a delicate pace due to the sensitivity of getting it right.
The source said: “He is working on a major project to do with Ukraine which will touch on reconstruction.”
