Britain hands over long-range missile blueprints to Ukraine

**Valerie Sanderson** (0:00)
This is The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson, and at 1400hrs GMT on Monday the 24th of August, these are our main stories. The UK is handing over classified technology to Ukraine that would help Kiev strike deeper into Russia. Pakistan's army chief is back in Iran, trying to restart peace talks between Tehran and Washington. Nine people have been killed amid a spike in piracy in the Western Indian Ocean.
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Ukraine is hosting key European allies known as the Coalition of the Willing on the 35th anniversary of the nation's independence to press for more political support and crucially the critical weapons system it needs to combat Russia. The meeting is also expected to look at how to supply Ukraine with patriot missiles that would intercept some of the aerial attacks from Russia. It's an event being chaired by the leaders of France and Germany who participate remotely and by the British Prime Minister Andy Burnham who's in Kyiv.

**Andy Burnham** (1:27)
Thank you for the incredible stand you have taken because we are all stronger for it. Europe is stronger, NATO is stronger too. As President Zelenskiy has said, Ukraine is not a poor relative but a strong ally.
I'd go further still, Ukraine has been Europe's protector. Not a drain on our security but the front line of keeping Europe safe.

**Valerie Sanderson** (1:58)
But this is not just a day for symbolic acts of support. As our correspondent in Kyiv, Dan Johnson explains.

**Dan Johnson** (2:04)
There's a large security operation in Kyiv today for the Independence Day celebrations. A lot of international politicians and leaders here, including British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, on his first overseas visit. He's bringing a message of renewed British support. He said that friendship would be there for Ukraine as long as it takes, and that Russia's threats against the UK would not weaken the resolve that Britain would not waver in supplying Ukraine with what it needs. And that's not just the Storm Shadow or Scalp missiles that have already been supplied, but it is now the technology, the blueprints for those missiles so that Ukraine can produce them itself. That's an important step, but it also signals to other international countries that Ukraine can be trusted with that technology. And President Zelenskiy will be hoping that Donald Trump hears that message and therefore agrees that Ukraine can produce its own Patriot missile interceptors which are desperately needed to protect Ukraine's skies. There are political meetings today as well as the celebrations. Andy Burnham is going to receive an award on behalf of the British people for the support the UK has given Ukraine in the four and a half years of this war.

**Valerie Sanderson** (3:15)
So what impact would the promised new defensive and offensive weapons have on Kyiv's military abilities? Volodymyr Havrilov is a former Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense.

**Volodymyr Havrilov** (3:25)
Russia doesn't have the capability to intercept ballistics. So they have some systems, but they are not so effective like a Patriot or like that. That's why it would be kind of game changer when the first Ukrainian ballistic missile will reach some kind of targets close to Moscow with all this information coming inside the Russian society to understand that something different is going on. This war is all about reciprocity. So we didn't have any kind of capability to respond to Russian ballistic missiles or other attacks on our territory until 2026
In 2026, we succeeded to sufficiently to scale up the production of our domestic designs of long range drones and middle range drones.
And also we contributed a lot in the ballistic missile, in ballistic missile program in Ukraine and cruise missile. And it gave us a capability to reach Russian targets on the territory of Russia, deep in Russia. And we immediately started to understand that that is a game changer, because the Russians started to react differently inside the country about that. And we are very confident that the next step ballistic capability will contribute to the outcome of this war.

**Valerie Sanderson** (4:43)
Volodymyr Havrilov. Pakistani mediators are in Iran trying to restart the peace process between Tehran and Washington. It comes as the US is preparing to expand its economic sanctions, which could see nations that trade with Iran hit with financial penalties. The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says they will be the toughest in history. In anticipation, the country's currency, the real, has hit a record low.