Keir Starmer warns against forgetting threat posed by Russia during Iran War
The Prime Minister said the West faced a "war on two fronts" against Iran and Russia
Sir Keir Starmer has warned that Britain and its allies should not forget about the threat Russia poses to the West amid the Iran war.
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Speaking at Helsinki’s presidential palace, Sir Keir said the threat posed by Russia had grown, and announced that Ukraine's navy would join military drills with Northern European nations for the first time this autumn.
His comments came during a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force, a military coalition of Northern European nations including the UK, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.
In the same meeting, the Prime Minister revealed that British troops would now begin to seize ships smuggling oil out of Russia.
“The threat from Russia in the north and east has not gone away," Sir Keir said.
Moscow's shadow fleet is a group of over one thousand ageing oil tankers that ship oil and other goods out of Russia whilst flying the flag of another country.
This allows them to avoid US and EU sanctions, which limit how much the Russian economy can profit from exports.
Sir Keir also praised Ukraine's “unparalleled” ability to counter Moscow's drone warfare.
The JEF aims to prepare Northern Europe to defend against Russian aggression.
The group meets annually and is made up of 10 European nations that have agreed to ensure the security of the North Atlantic, independently of NATO.
Speaking to broadcasters at the start of the JEF summit, Sir Keir said: "The focus here is very much on Russian aggression in Ukraine and we have to accept that there’s a war on two fronts – there’s the Iranian conflict and the continuing Ukrainian conflict.“
"Today I’ll be talking to allies about what more we can do."
"Of course, there will be discussions about defence spend, also defence capability," he added.