Zelenskyy to be first foreign leader to meet new UK PM Andy Burnham as Britain reaffirms Ukraine support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham at a naval base in England on Monday a visit Burnham said is intended to signal the UKs unwavering support for UkraineZelenskyys trip is the first by a foreign leader since Burnham took office a week ago His predecessor Keir Starmer was in Kyiv less than two weeks ago in his last overseas trip before leaving officeBurnham will be the fifth British prime minister to deal with the Ukrainian president since Russias fullscale invasion of Ukraine in 2022Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve and we will not back down until we achieve long lasting and just peace for Ukraine said Burnham who has spent the past nine years as mayor of Greater Manchester and has little foreign policy experienceDuring the visit Zelenskyy and Burnham will meet more than 200 Ukrainian military personnel who have spent the past three weeks in Britain They have been taking part in an exercise aimed at strengthening warfighting capabilities and countermine measures in the Black Sea the UK government saidThe UK will give Ukraine the intellectual property behind its new Stone Cloak electronic warfare system which blocks drones from being detected Burnhams office saidUkraine has expanded its campaign of deep strikes with increasingly frequent drone attacks inside Russia that have targeted oil facilities military factories and most recently logistical centres bringing war home to millions of Russians and raising pressure on President Vladimir PutinThe raids have shattered Putins narrative of the conflict as something that doesnt affect the lives of ordinary people in his country But Putin has remained undeterred and Russia has ramped up its aerial campaign regularly bombarding Ukraine with missiles and dronesRussia again attacked Ukraine overnight with 147 longrange strike drones according to the Ukrainian air force which said 123 drones were intercepted or jammedIn Zaporizhzhia one person was killed and two injured in a series of attacks at the city that damaged a highrise residential buildings and several private residences overnight according to regional administration head Ivan FedorovIn Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region Russian strikes damaged a kindergarten residential buildings and infrastructure injuring a woman and a 6years old boy according to administration head Oleksandr HanzhaIn Moscow Russias Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 276 Ukrainian drones overnightThe Rostov regions governor Yuri Slyusar said a family couple died when a Ukrainian drone hit an apartment building in RostovonDon Five others were injured in a drone attack on the city he saidIn the city of Belgorod a Ukrainian drone attack injured 12 including two children according to regional emergency officialsIranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Ukraine struck an Iranian vessel in the Caspian killing a sailorIn a statement on X on Sunday Araghchi denounced the attack as a blatant UN Charter violation done at Israels behest to drag Europe into its warHe said he made it clear in calls with the European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the attack cant go unansweredZelenskyy said Ukrainian longrange strikes in the Caspian Sea over the weekend achieved very good results adding that the targets included vessels involved in transporting military cargo linked to Iran as well as a warshipThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever