LONDON, Aug. 25 -- The morning before Ukraine's Independence Day celebrations reached their peak in Kyiv, Moscow delivered its assessment of what was coming. Russia would identify and gather targeting intelligence on Ukrainian missile production facilities before any manufacturing line became operational, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced - a threat aimed directly at what Britain's prime minister was flying to Kyiv to offer.

On August 24, 2026, Prime Minister Andy Burnham made his first foreign trip as Britain's leader to Kyiv, where he announced the most sensitive weapons technology transfer in the Ukraine conflict to date: Britain would authorise defence company MBDA to share classified technical data on the components it su...