TALLINN — Allied countries need to work on fresh sanctions against Russia to punish the Kremlin for its all-out war on Ukraine, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday — while keeping tight-lipped on Britain’s own plans to hike defense spending.
Speaking alongside the leaders of Estonia and Norway in Tallinn ahead of a meeting on military investment, Starmer said Moscow had made a “series of strategic errors” in the war, but remained able to “backfill its military capability” in ways that Kyiv’s forces cannot without western aid.
“We have to double down on the sanctions,” he said. “Those sanctions are hurting the Russian economy … There’s more joint work we can do there.”
The EU this week imposed fresh restrictions targeted at Russia’s economy and aimed at stopping GRU 29155, a unit in Russia’s military intelligence service.
The introduction of North Korean troops to the conflict in Russia is “very significant” and “underscores the desperation of the Russians,” Starmer said.
“It extends the conflict and it begins to show the join up between different points of tension around the world — parts of the Pacific, parts of the Middle East.”
“We have to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position whether or not there are negotiations,” said Starmer of the prospect of talks over a cease-fire. “That’s where we have to start our analysis.”
Starmer is in the smallest Baltic state for talks with leaders from across the Joint Expeditionary Force, a decade-old U.K.-led informal defense group within NATO used to informally coordinate defense activities in the Baltic Sea and North Sea region.
On Tuesday, Starmer will meet with the leaders of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden along with the three Baltic states and the Netherlands for discussion on long-term defense spending and the response to threats from Russia.
All the JEF countries hit the standing 2 percent of GDP target and Starmer has been clear that his government will stick with plans to raise Britain’s outlay to 2.5 percent.
But he has so far refused to set out a timeline for making that happen.
“Public finances are not in a good place in the United Kingdom,” he said in Tallinn, indicating that the warfare-versus-welfare public spending debate is “tough.”
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