Newsletters
Britain announced Tuesday it will provide enriched uranium to power Ukraine's nuclear plants and impose a fresh wave of sanctions against Russia, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived at a G7 summit in the French Alps determined to demonstrate London's commitment to Kyiv despite mounting political turbulence at home.
Starmer, speaking ahead of a summit session attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Britain was "stepping up" by "choking off the revenues that fuel Putin's war and powering Ukraine through the winters ahead."
The energy arrangement, backed by some 210 million pounds ($282 million) in UK export finance, will enable Urenco, the UK-based nuclear fuel company, to supply enriched uranium to Ukraine's state nuclear operator, Energoatom. Starmer's office said the deal would "power Ukraine for the next two years."
Urenco has supplied Energoatom with enriched uranium since 2009 and holds a long-term contract with the company running through 2035. It operates enrichment facilities in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.
Ukraine cut ties with Russian nuclear fuel suppliers following Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022 and has since relied on Western partners, with Urenco feeding enriched uranium to Westinghouse, which in turn manufactures the fuel assemblies used in Ukraine's reactors.
Nuclear power accounts for roughly half of Ukraine's electricity generation across its 15 reactors, though six of those, at Zaporizhzhia, have been under Russian military control since early in the war.
Zelenskyy's appearance at the Evian-les-Bains summit, a lakeside resort town bordering Switzerland, came a day after a Russian missile barrage early Monday killed at least 11 people across Ukraine and set fire to one of the most significant Orthodox monasteries in Kyiv.
G7 allies have gathered at the French summit, held under the 2026 French presidency, with the explicit goal of tilting the balance in Ukraine's favour after more than four years of war. The conflict, now entering its fifth year, has become the defining security challenge for the alliance of seven leading democratic economies.
Starmer told his counterparts that "the G7 should collectively go further to ensure Ukraine secures the just and lasting peace it deserves," adding, "We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes and this announcement reinforces that."
Alongside the energy package, London announced additional sanctions targeting what Starmer's office described as Russia's "illicit shadow fleet" and the financial networks that Moscow uses to evade existing Western penalties.
The measures are designed to "choke Russia's war effort across multiple fronts," the prime minister's office said.
Western governments have spent years attempting to close the loopholes that allow Russia to continue earning oil revenues through a network of opaque tankers and shell companies operating outside the reach of earlier sanction regimes.
1 min read
The announcements came as Starmer faces significant political pressure at home. His defence secretary, John Healey, resigned last Thursday along with Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, both accusing the prime minister of failing to commit sufficient resources to the military at what they described as a time of rising threats.
Healey charged that both Starmer and the Treasury had been unwilling to fund the armed forces adequately, calling it a failure at "a dangerous time."
The dual resignations, followed by the appointment of Security Minister Dan Jarvis as Healey's replacement, left Starmer heading to Evian-les-Bains under pressure to project resolve internationally even as his authority erodes at home.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
