LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will try to revive hope for peace in Ukraine at a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other Western leaders on Sunday, two days after the Ukrainian president clashed with U.S. President Donald Trump.
After the heated row with Trump, who threatened to stop support for Ukraine after accusing Zelenskiy of being ungrateful for U.S. aid, the Ukrainian leader flew from Washington to London on Saturday to be greeted with a warm hug from Starmer.
Starmer said on Sunday an urgent round of calls to Trump, Zelenskiy and French President Emmanuel Macron over the weekend had cemented the idea that a “coalition of the willing” in Europe would need to move quickly to come up with a peace plan to be presented to the United States.
That meant Europe moving faster than it has done to show it can defend itself, Starmer said, adding he was not criticising other nations but making it clear that countries needed to step up as Britain and France had by offering peacekeeping troops.
“Rather than moving at the pace of every single country in Europe, which would in the end be quite a slow process, we’ve got to probably get to a coalition of the willing now,“ he told the BBC.
“The UK and France are the most advanced on the thinking of this and that is why President Macron and I are working on this plan, which we will then discuss with the U.S.,“ he said, adding he did not think Zelenskiy had done anything wrong on Friday.
He described watching the spat between Zelenskiy and Trump in the Oval Office as uncomfortable viewing, but was keen to push the conversation forward by offering himself as a go-between for Europe and the United States.
Starmer will ask leaders how they can step up to provide Kyiv with aid before any peace talks begin, given that many are struggling with limited public finances.
Lacking the weaponry and depth of ammunition stocks of the United States, European leaders have so far offered expressions of support after the Zelenskiy row, with Germany calling for the release of 3 billion euros ($3.1 billion) for Ukraine.
Starmer is trying to revive a possible peace deal with Russia by convincing Trump that Europe can step up to defend itself. Some leaders might also encourage Zelenskiy to go back into talks with the U.S. leader.
He said the war was at a turning point three years into the invasion, and he offered “unwavering support for Ukraine” by doubling down on providing capacity, training and aid to Kyiv.
At a meeting that has taken on added significance, Starmer will start Sunday by holding talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after welcoming Zelenskiy on Saturday with a clear message of support for a visibly shaken leader.
They will then be joined by Macron, the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and leaders from countries including Germany, Denmark, Poland and Canada. Turkey’s foreign minister will also attend.
BAD END TO GOOD WEEK
Zelenskiy’s row with Trump on Friday ended a week when Europe had appeared to be in a better position in its drive to encourage Trump to continue to offer support to Ukraine after cordial visits to Washington by Macron and Starmer.
Both had pressed the U.S. leader to offer what is known as “a backstop” to a potential European peacekeeping force in the event of a deal between Kyiv and Moscow. While they had failed to secure a promise from Trump, he had not rejected the idea.
But the rest of Europe is a long way from falling in behind the French and British leaders’ plans to safeguard a peace deal, and Starmer will hope to take on a leadership role by suggesting Britain become a bridge between Europe and the United States.
Sunday’s meeting is a boost for Starmer, whose team felt his meeting with Trump last week had gone better than expected with Trump praising the British leader and even suggesting Ukraine could regain some lost territory in peace talks.
Friday’s disastrous meeting poisoned that mood, and Sunday’s summit and an extraordinary EU one in Brussels this week will prove crucial to establishing whether European leaders can offer Ukraine something concrete and repair the damage done.
Meloni has also called for an emergency summit involving the United States, European nations and allies to discuss how “to deal with the great challenges of today, starting with Ukraine”.
On Sunday, European leaders are expected again to press for peace talks to include Ukraine, to strengthen Kyiv’s position and to secure the necessary security guarantees to ensure a long-lasting peace and to deter any future Russian attack.
That would mean persuading Washington to offer a backstop, possibly in the form of air cover, intelligence and surveillance and a greater as yet unspecified threat if Putin again sought to take more territory.
Starmer will update other leaders on his meeting with Trump, when the U.S. president praised his efforts to increase defence spending and offer to deploy peacekeeping troops.
For now, Starmer wants to lower the temperature after the row in Trump’s Oval Office.
Some leaders will also urge Zelenskiy to try to rebuild bridges with Trump. NATO’s Rutte and Polish President Andrzej Duda have urged the Ukrainian leader to find a way to restore the relationship.
Nils Schmid, foreign policy spokesperson for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, told Reuters on Saturday that Europe needed to maintain its contacts with Trump.
“Generally speaking, we don’t know where Trump will stand on all these issues in three or six months’ time,“ he said.
