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In a move co-ordinated with France, Germany and the United States, Sir Keir Starmer said the UK was willing to unlock up to £25 billion of Russian money held in the UK for the war effort.
The decision, after months of talks among the G7 and other western allies, may release as much as £250 billion to Ukraine in tranches to fund weapons purchases and prop up its war economy.
In a joint statement with President Macron of France and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, Starmer said that the three leaders had agreed to “increase pressure” on Putin to counter his “stalling tactics and abhorrent attacks in response to peace talks”.
They said: “To that end, we are ready to progress towards using, in a co-ordinated way, the value of the immobilised Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s armed forces and thus bring Russia to the negotiation table. We aim to do this in close co-operation with the United States of America.”
Starmer is also understood to have discussed the plan with President Zelensky of Ukraine. Downing Street said that the UK, France and Germany were “united in wanting to drive progress towards using the full value of the immobilised Russian sovereign assets to end the war”.
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This is excellent news. Finally our leaders are showing some strength