British defence secretary Grant Shapps visits Kyiv

British defence secretary Grant Shapps discussed how to bolster Ukraine’s air defences during talks in an unannounced visit to Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president’s office said on Thursday.

The visit to the Ukrainian capital was Shapps’s first to Kyiv since he became defence secretary last month, Reuters reports.

“On behalf of the whole nation, I thank you for everything you are doing for us. We are grateful for your help – military, financial, humanitarian. We greatly appreciate that we can rely on you,” a statement released by Zelenskiy’s office quoted the president as saying.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Grant Shapps in Kyiv. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/PA

Zelenskiy is believed to have raised defence sector cooperation between Kyiv and London, which he said had allowed Ukraine to significantly expand its capabilities on the battlefield with long-range weapons.

Britain this year supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles that have allowed Ukraine to conduct long-range strikes on targets in Russian-occupied territory.

Ukrainian and British delegations meet in Kyiv during Grant Shapps’s visit. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/PA

The visit was not pre-announced, and it was unclear exactly when Shapps met Zelenskiy. Shapps has visited Ukraine before during the war, but in his previous capacity of energy minister.