UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband visited Ukraine on 8 October 2026, his first trip there in the role, meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said. He joined Zelenskyy at a damaged residential block in Pryluky, Chernihiv Region, where a recent strike killed at least 22 people, and announced new sanctions and £6 million in war-crimes justice funding.

The department said the sanctions package targeted around 40 people and entities across Russia's financial, oil and technology sectors, and that fresh action meant over 90% of Russia's total oil producing capacity was covered by the UK regime. It added that £54 million in combined energy and humanitarian funding was expected to support Ukrainians through winter, split into £20 million for energy security and £34 million for heating, water and direct cash support.

Speaking from the strike site, Miliband said the UK would not relent in its support and told Putin: "You cannot wait us out." The release also said a missile hit a bus in Kramatorsk that morning, killing at least 30 people, and that the UK has provided over £1 billion in humanitarian and energy support since Russia's full-scale invasion.