Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky started his European tour by meeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London.

This is the first stop on Zelenskyj’s tour to garner further arms support.

Zelenskyj and Starmer embraced each other as they met outside Downing Street in London on Thursday morning. Throughout the day, the two held several talks, including with NATO’s new Secretary General Mark Rutte (NTB-DPA)

The reason is that the West’s support for Ukraine’s fight against the Kremlin is beginning to crack, writes The Telegraph. A European population that is itself struggling economically is no longer as enthusiastic.

The widespread corruption in Ukraine also reduces the willingness to send large sums of money to Kiev, which may not find their way to the frontline soldiers.

Even Joe Biden and his reportedly hawkish White House staff were unimpressed with the Ukrainian president’s “victory plan”, which U.S. officials complained was more of a wish list for weapons than a strategy for defeating Russia.

Starmer believes that under certain conditions Ukraine is fully entitled to attack targets in Russia. However, its position on the use of British Storm Shadow missiles remains unchanged, according to a spokesperson:

“We obviously want to put Ukraine in the strongest position, but no war has ever been won by a single weapon. And when it comes to Storm Shadow specifically, there’s been no change in the UK government’s stance on the use of long-range missiles.

New NATO chief Mark Rutte said the use of long-range weapons against targets in Russia is up for discussion.

“We discussed it today, but ultimately it’s up to the individual countries”.

Zelensky claimed that the situation on the battlefield “creates an opportunity” to end the war in Ukraine by the end of next year, without specifying what he meant.

Starmer said it was “very important to maintain the commitments of support to Ukraine”.

Zelensky has continued his tour, landing this afternoon in Paris for talks with President Emmanuel Macron.