War in Ukraine brings UK back to major European politics — professor

Professor Andrii Hrubinko of the West Ukrainian National University expressed this opinion on The World and Us project with Yevhen Mahda.

“For Keir Starmer himself, these are rather challenging times, because for the United Kingdom—especially with Donald Trump’s return to power in the U.S. and the overall escalation of international issues and security concerns—the situation on the foreign policy front is ambiguous, and the situation is also uncertain for the Labour government itself. In fact, there isn’t much to boast about at the moment,” he said.

Andrii Hrubinko noted that the Ukrainian factor has played a significant role in the UK’s foreign policy for several years.

“For the past three or four years, the Ukrainian factor has undoubtedly played an important role in the UK’s foreign policy. This is the direction, the means, so to speak, of expanding global influence, as the UK leadership—first the Conservatives, now the Labour Party—has declared since Brexit. In order to expand Britain’s influence, I would say that the situation in and around Ukraine, the war in Ukraine, is what is bringing the UK back into major European politics after several years of crisis in its relations not only with Brussels, but also with Berlin, Paris, and a number of other European countries,” the professor of West Ukrainian National University noted.

• On Monday, June 23, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the United Kingdom to deepen defense cooperation.