Starmer in Kyiv for 100-year partnership deal

What did a 100-year agreement mean for Ukraine's relationship with the United Kingdom? On 16 January 2025, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer travelled to Kyiv to sign it, a deal intended to formalise British economic and military support for Ukraine.

The visit placed the long-term framing of the partnership at the centre of the day's politics. The agreement was described at the time as covering both economic and military backing, and its 100-year span set it apart from short-term aid arrangements.

The wartime backdrop

The signing came while Russia's invasion continued. Days earlier, on 11 January 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine had captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk Oblast. They were in healthy condition, and it was the first time such captives had survived since North Korea entered the war. The two earlier North Korean prisoners had died of their injuries shortly after capture.

North Korea's support for Russia had a longer history. Later accounts of the background note that Pyongyang recognised the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea in 2017. In July 2022 it recognised the Russia-backed, self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, which prompted Ukraine to sever diplomatic ties with North Korea.

Why the date mattered

The two developments in the days around 16 January 2025 showed the war's dual character: a battlefield that had drawn in foreign troops on Russia's side, and a diplomatic effort in Kyiv to anchor Ukraine's partnerships over the very long term. Starmer's trip to the Ukrainian capital was the visible expression of the latter.